How AI Will Change Everything

Marketing expert Mark Beckman joins me to talk about Artificial Intelligence and how it will change life as we know it, for good and bad, but how we need to embrace change or be destroyed by it.

Markmis a frequent tech contributor the America Today.

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
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Southwest Florida dreamhome.com.I want to find a there was a

(01:20):
story over the weekend. They kind of sent a chill up my
my spine and and I may not be able to find it.
So I'll just tell you there is aparticular larvae that travels
with a family that comes from, Iguess it's Latin America and I
think it's called the worm fly or the the screw worm or
something. Anyway, for for decades they've

(01:42):
been able to deal with this by somehow integrating, believe it
or not, the same fly but exposedto a lot of radiation.
So they treat these flies with radiation and then they
integrate them because they're not they're, they're sterile and
they can't reproduce. And the hope is that these
sterile flies will neutralize these other flies that are

(02:06):
coming closer and closer to the United States.
And apparently the larvae, if itgets into your skin, it can eat
alive a cow or a dog. And it, it can even kill a human
if you don't detect it. And this thing really gets in
and it causes such a massive and, and I hate to usually talk

(02:27):
about this kind of stuff, but the people in the United States
are concerned. And one of the problems is that
some of this, these flies are getting closer.
Now they're at Oaxaca or Oaxaca,Mexico.
And they believe that the cartels might in be instrumental
in moving these flies into the United States.

(02:48):
Isn't that strange? I mean, now we're at this level
where we're integrating and weaponizing insects to
infiltrate the United States. So keep our eyes on that one.
Of course, I wrote this over. I was listening to a podcast.
I can't remember. I think it was Joe Rogan or
something like that. And there was somebody arguing

(03:09):
about why, oh, with Harvard and what's going on with Harvard.
And the big debate is, should the government be shutting down
this institution of, of high knowledge and higher learning
for political reasons? And of course, the issue is also
about Harvard and how it has been completely wokeified by DEI

(03:30):
standards. And it prompted me to sort of
articulate what I think is the real issue here.
And people that, and I know a lot of liberal friends of mine
who absolutely think the DEI is fair.
They think it's fair. They think that that it's a
proper way to make sure that nobody gets left behind or is

(03:51):
unfairly treated because they don't have white privilege.
That's the essence of the argument for DEI.
This is why, you know, Hollywoodhas one of every kind of
demographic in every movie. Now.
You have an Asian, you have a, agay black man, you have a, a, a
dumb white guy and a beautiful blonde who has no sex appeal.

(04:12):
And they think that by making sure that everybody is fairly
represented, that it'll be more fair and, and also more boring.
And, but I, I want to, I want tospend a little bit of time with
this because this is a well articulated perspective.
And also they're good friends ofmine up in, I'll tell you
there's a principle. This is also what triggered

(04:34):
this, what I'm about to share with you, a principal up in
North Chicago, good friends. They've been acquaintances of
mine for decades and this guy bythe name of Alvin Kulieki and he
was the principal and they have a library named after him.
He's generational. The guy's been there since 50s
and he was a great teacher. I believe his was it mad anyway?

(04:59):
So now they're trying to paint him as a racist because there
are old yearbooks with him wearing blackface and that he
engages in racism that he was under all that time, not not
only the principal, but apparently very racist.
And what's come to light is thatthat's been no further from the

(05:21):
truth. I mean, I know this family,
there's not a racist bone in their body, but they want to
change the name because some junior investigative reporter
from this high school, I think it's N Oakland or something,
decided to expose and Alvin Kulieki died.
He's been dead for a while, but they want to remove his name now
from the library because he was a racist and he did blackface,

(05:44):
you know, back in the 60s when everybody was doing blackface
and a damn near killed, you know, what's her name, the
blonde woman, Ellen DeGeneres damn near killed her career and
I think others too. So this is all part of that DEI
nonsense where anybody that appropriates something from

(06:05):
another race is somehow. So I, I, I'm sick of it.
I'm sick of DEI and I want to tell you that it's harmful and,
and I'll tell you why, Red, realdiversity only comes from
diversity of opinion, especiallyfrom those who disagree with
you. Real equity is impossible for
the simple reason that No2 persons are the same.

(06:26):
Equality provides all everybody a chance, but equity promotes
mediocrity and a truly progressive society prospers
only when humans push themselvesharder.
But not all people are driven. Many are lazy and they want to
take what they haven't earned. In the equity model, the
producers become enslaved by thenon producers, which is what

(06:50):
we're seeing now. Now inclusivity.
Inclusivity means everyone gets to play and no one is allowed to
win, which goes against the human tendencies for vanity,
pride, desire for achievement. Take these principles away and
we would still be living in hutsand in treetops.
And This is why DEI is best illustrated in Animal Farm,

(07:12):
where the pig ultimately becomesmore equal than everybody else.
And I think of Alexandria OcasioOrtez as a pig from the book,
mind you, because she's out there touting that everybody is
should be equitable and everybody should be the same.
But yet she gets to be in charge.
So DEI is, again, it's it's a lie because it makes everyone

(07:35):
equally unimportant. And if you are a subscriber to
DEI as being the level playing field of America, what you're
going to produce is mediocrity and favoritism and tribalism.
And that's what what's happening.
That's why we're seeing what we're seeing in American Society
today. But the good news is the
majorities are pushing back on this big election in Poland.

(07:58):
Over the weekend. I mentioned earlier, Carol
Norwicki has won a conservative much in the same ilk of Trump,
and also Trump supported him as well.
And it's because people in Poland are sick and tired of
immigration policies. They're sick and tired of their
country and its integrity and its pride being overrun.

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And by the way, we're seeing this now in France.
We're seeing it in England. There's a big rally over the
weekend in England and I believealso in Wales, hundreds of
villages. People are standing up against
this. And we're seeing a what is
called a red tide and they're pushing back against the
European elites who strangely have, according to the article I

(08:43):
read by Margot Cleveland in the in the Federalist earlier today,
the elites of Europe are borrowing from the Democratic
playbook, which means the Democrats are the now the party
of censorship, surveillance, andagain, DEI policies, which are
the overtone of Marxism, trying to make everybody equally
impoverished. And then a whole host of other

(09:05):
things with the climate change. And, you know, so we're seeing a
red tide, I guess you could callit, across the world.
People have peeked into the other side and they don't like
what they see. And that's, that should be
encouraging. All right, a couple more minutes
on deck. I want to talk about this bold
new idea to completely get rid of social media for the sake of

(09:30):
our children. And it's a, it's an idea that
whose time has come. We'll talk about that in just a
second. You're listening to America
Today. Don't forget to follow the
podcast, and you can do so on Spotify.
Just look for America Today withJim Watkins and of course the
website jimwatkins.org. We'll be right back.
You're listening to America TODAY.

(10:09):
All right, welcome back. It's America Today, Jim Watkins
and I read a great article today.
As you know, I'm a big fan of The Federalist, and it's
something that we all should be really thinking about.
Let me roll off some statistics for you here because, you know,
I know that right now in the world, there are four point no
5.4 billion people that possess a cell phone.

(10:31):
That's a pretty incredible there's what, 7 billion people?
So that means that a majority, 75% of human beings are in
possession. You know, presumably the
remainder are probably young kids under the age of five and
old people who just never adapted, but or you're a remote
Bushman in Indonesia or something, you know?

(10:54):
But the fact is, is that most humans on the planet are now in
possession of a cell phone, and a smartphone at that.
So here are some more statisticsfor you.
As of late 2020, 495% of US teens aged 13 to 17 have access
to a smartphone at home. Internet usage Nearly all teens

(11:18):
96% A report using the Internet daily.
This comes from Pew Research 46%stated they are online almost
constantly, a significant increase from 24% just a decade
ago. Perception of screen time, again
from Pew Research Excessive use in 2020, four, 45% of teens felt

(11:42):
they spent too much time on social media, up from 27% in
2023. Teen girls are more likely than
boys to say they spend too much time on their smartphones, and
we know that the algorithms are set up just for that reason.
So Needless to say, it is a tragedy that we are in this

(12:04):
position because it's having such a profoundly negative
effect on our students. And so there was an article
about the idea, if I could find it, that we should just cut them
off that, that you got to go cold.
You got to go cold Turkey and turn off the little screen and

(12:27):
take phones from children. Don't even give them to them
till they're 1618 years old. And even then, you know, even
then it's a risky proposition because it's 1617, which is
about the time when our kids started using smartphones.
We, we sort of groomed them withRoblox and Game Boy and every

(12:50):
other technology, but none of usreally anticipated that it would
be like it was. And I, and I hate to use it, but
I'll do it just because it's something on my mind.
But back in the days when I usedto watch Star Trek The Next
Generation, it oddly they had a episode, an episode where
everybody on board the Enterprise got addicted to these

(13:12):
games, that these optical games to the point where the actual
Enterprise was taken over by a foreign entity that had
introduced these games to the the members of the Starship
Enterprise. And I just think I reflect back
on that because this was 10-15 years before the advent of the

(13:32):
smartphone. So it was rather prophetic and
it kind of stuck with me just how dangerous these devices are
for a whole host of reasons, mainly because it's warping the
perceptions of reality. It is unbelievable.
When you walk through an airportand I know you will, or you walk

(13:55):
through some sort of public square, think of how much things
have changed. It it's, it's right there in
front of you. We're all doing it.
We're all looking at our screenstoo much.
I'm probably, I probably spend an hour or more total in the
morning and in the evening, but that's about it.
Everything else is work related,but I'm unique and I have too

(14:19):
many things to do, just like youand most adults, but kids,
they're, they're falling out of relationships.
They're. And so this article and I
believe it's John Daniel Davidson from the Federalist
talks about cutting the cord. Get your kids out there, get
them engaged. It's OK for them to be bored,
but don't succumb to the temptation of allowing them.

(14:42):
Now we're going to have Mark Beckman on.
He'll be on tomorrow. And he, of course, has written
how AI will change everything. And that's all everybody's
talking about is AI. If you go on Instagram or if
you're scrolling on TikTok, every other commercial is about
AI. And AI is sweeping the nation

(15:03):
and it's also jacking up the addiction level of these
smartphones and smart devices. So you know, we got to this
point because we all embraced the technology and it's
continued to get better. But now we're learning AI think
a valuable lesson. And the lesson is that it's
distorting the reality of our young people to where they can't

(15:25):
function properly and they get fidgety and they have to be
engaged in something that's got their attention.
And meanwhile, this there's thisworld going on around them.
So, all right, what else is going on?
I know that there was some otherstories that came across my desk
this weekend. I know I'm excited about the
WNBAII. Don't know.
Is Caitlin Clark back on tonight?

(15:48):
I don't know if she is Tuesday night, the fever.
I've been getting into an argument.
I think she's a bigger deal. But my kids who were in their
mid 20s and they love sports saythat all this stuff about
Caitlin Clark and everything is is OK, but it's gimmicky.
And a report I read out this week claims that Nike is behind

(16:08):
a lot of it. Nike has been driving all of
this Internet buzz and the conflict between the players.
And so we have that. But I think to me, it's it's
it's great to see women excelling in sports.
And if they can make a buck, whynot?
Right. All right, so we do have the

(16:28):
website up. It's working now.
It gathers all the highlights from the show.
So I encourage you to check thatout and we also, I think it's a
Speaking of AII want to play a couple of clips that pertain to
this very subject of why we haveto be especially careful about
the minds of our little children.

(16:49):
Look at listen to this teacher give us the truth about what's
happening with our kids. I.
Think that you guys don't know what's going on in education
right now that's fine. Like, how could you know unless
you were working in it? But I think that I think you
need to know. So here is exactly what it's
like right now working in publiceducation.
First of all, the kids have no ability to be bored whatsoever.

(17:11):
They live on their phones and they're just fed a constant
stream of dopamine from the minute their eyes wake up in the
morning until they go to sleep at night because they're in a
constant state of dopamine withdrawal at school.
They behave like addicts. They're super emotional, like
the smallest thing sets them off.
And when you are standing in front of them trying to teach,

(17:31):
they're vacant, they have no ability to tune in if your
communication isn't packaged in short little clips or if it
doesn't have like, bright flashing lights.
That's actually the way harder part for me than just the
outright behaviors is just beingup at the front, talking to a
group of kids who have their eyes open.
They're looking at me, but they're not there.

(17:53):
They're not there and they have a level of apathy that I've
never seen before in my whole career.
Punishments don't work because they don't care about them.
They don't care about grades. They don't care about college.
It's like you are interacting with them briefly in between
hits of the Internet, which is their real life.
The other issue that does not get talked about is the

(18:15):
proliferation of porn and the easy access.
Now, I'm old enough to remember that when you walked into a
store or convenience store or, you know, some drug store,
pharmacy store, that anything that was adult related was
behind the counter and it was partially obscured so that you
weren't sitting there standing there with your mommy, you know,

(18:36):
looking at the woman's cleavage,you know, and, and that that was
fine. That was important because for
two reasons. One, it prevented you from being
obsessed with it. And two, it also sent a message
that this is not appropriate foryoung people and that you, isn't
it interesting that, you know, being told no, right?

(18:57):
Being told no, that you can't have access to something because
it's morally wrong. And today children, when they
get on the iPhone or smartphone or tablet, they're not told no.
They're, they're not only not told no, they're told how to get
there. And the tech companies know that
they're doing this and they're making, I'm going to save

(19:20):
billions of dollars a year. Everybody's got their, their
hand in that, in that, in that cookie jar.
And nobody is saying no. And, and I think we need to hear
no more. We need to hear ourselves tell
our children, no, you can't do that.
It's not appropriate. All right, America today, Jim
Watkins. See you tomorrow.

(19:41):
Have a good day.