Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And said, Mandy, just letting you know. The deficit is
thirty three to thirty six trillion. No, that's the national debt.
The deficit is what we overspend every year, and in
twenty twenty four we overspent one point eight trillion dollars. Currently,
as of this moment, our national our deficit for this
year is eight hundred and thirty six billion dollars. So
(00:20):
I mean that's progress, I guess. But the debt is
the total number. The deficit is the annual number. So
that is where that I just want to clear up
any confusion there. And speaking of confusion, if you go
to the blog today and you look at either of
the extremely interesting videos that my friend Thomas Fry put together,
you may be confused thinking you're seeing the man in
(00:41):
those videos. But it is not the man. It is
an avatar of Thomas Fry And now the real Thomas
Fry or is it? Are you the real Thomas FRYE?
Am I just talking to an avatar? I can't tell. Thomas.
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
This today to change the topics that you've been talking about,
and we're going to talk about AI avatars.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
This is a fun topic.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
What is the explain. Let's start at the very beginning,
because you know, there's a lot of people in my
listening audience like me who are basically Luddites, right, So
what is an ai avatar and why would one have one?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, an ai avatar you can create one of yourself,
and you can use other ones that are already made
that are in the system, but you can actually create
one of yourself so it looks like you, it'll talk
like you, same manners and gestures and things, and then
you can use this to create your own videos. So
(01:42):
then if this eliminates the need for doing lots of
fancy lighting and getting camera guys and editing people up
every time you want to create a video, you can
create a video just on your own using your avatar,
and all you have to do is feed in the
text and the scene changes and stuff, and you can
(02:05):
actually produce some pretty interesting videos that way.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now, Thomas, you did this with a program called Synthesia,
And you told me how much did you spend on this,
because I'm going to make this point here in just
a second, how much did you spend on creating your
own avatar that you can use to do these videos?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Two hundred and sixteen dollars, and that it enables you
at a great actually three personal avatars if you want.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I was selling Thomas off the air that I have
a friend who does training courses and she paid a
company like four years ago about fifteen thousand dollars to
do this very thing, and your avatar is better than hers.
I know I shouldn't say that, but if I didn't
know you and I, you know, you and I were
face to face for these interviews that we do, I
could tell it was not you. But if I didn't
(02:54):
know you, I'm not sure I would have been able
to tell. How I mean, you have to be pleased
with the way it came out.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I thought it's kind of funny because the avatar
actually sounds to me more like me than like my kids.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
They'll say, no, it doesn't sound like you at all.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh no, I think it sounds like you very much.
I think it very well. Hang on, let's just do
this right now. So let me just let me have
my audio there, Zach real quick on my computer.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I'm the creator is eight the eight people who are
the behind the scenes founders of Silicon Valley. The story
of Silicon Valley starts with the invention of the transistor
in nineteen forty.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I mean, it sounds like you're reading, but it does
sound like you, I think, and that was Theari avatar.
So what are you using this for? What would a
normal person use this for?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You can use this for training videos, you can use
this for promotions.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There's just a thousands of things you can do.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I mean, if you want to become an influence sir
on social media, this is a perfect tool to use to.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Do to that well.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And that's kind of what I'm looking at. Ask okay here,
I'm a personality I hate doing social media videos. I
just I hate it. I don't enjoy being on camera.
I never have. And so this for me would be
perfect to be able to upload my content which I'd
love to share, but not actually have to do hair,
(04:27):
makeup and all those other things. I might create an
Ai Nandy this afternoon. I don't know how long did
this process take.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So it'll have you when you're going to create your
own avatar, it'll have you get on camera and then
read through a script. You want to make sure you're
well lived and you have a good background and everything.
Or you can just have a green screen behind you
if you want, but then it'll have have you read
through this script, which is about, I don't know, two
(04:57):
and a half three minutes long, and then and then
you'll send it in and it takes like a day for.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Them to get it back to you.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But you can also use your avatar to speak in
something like eighty different languages.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Actually, wait a minute, so your avatar could actually be
smarter than you.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, a lot smarter and well much more well versed
in other languages.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
That actually, I mean, so basically, what you're telling me
is that I could take over the entire world, is
what you're telling me, because I could translate my thoughts
into languages that could be seen and heard all over
the world. I mean, why not Why wouldn't I do that?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I think you should.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
One thing I will, I will say, Thomas, when I
saw this this morning, the entire Hollywood strike that had
that happened fairly recently really became understandable watching this video,
because if Hollywood had the opportunity or the rights to
use someone's voice and image in perpetuity like they were
(06:07):
asking for, they could create entire masterpieces. I mean I
feel like we really a few years away before a
first AI movie becomes a thing, right, I mean pure
AI movie where Thomas Frye is starring in this movie
with Mandy Connell, and they'll have us in all these
action scenes and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, there's actually some pretty tight security on this to
make sure that you're using your avatar yourself and not
somebody else's using it.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So there, I think they're.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Pretty cautious about that that thing actually happening. But I mean,
this is just one company. There's other companies doing the
same thing. I don't know how how this ranks. There
might be some better ones out there. I tried this one.
It seemed easy enough to use, and so I went
with it. Each one of these will have a learning curve,
(07:04):
and once you learn it, then you want to stick
with that company.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Now, are you able to do videos through this company's synthesia,
because I'm thinking, like, imagine if you were a small
business owner and you were trying to scale your business,
but you want to make sure that your values are
being shared with new employees. Right, one of the hardest
parts of scalability is making sure that new employees know
what your vision and your values are all about. If
(07:28):
I'm the owner of the company, I don't have time
to talk to each individual employee. But if I could
go and create a current like today, you know, some
sort of current situation that I could bring home to
drive home those values, I think there's real there could
be a real value in that. So trying to think
(07:49):
outside the box on who could use this technology? Now,
are you aware, like you mentioned before, it's using for
training and stuff like that. Are you aware of people
using it for other purposes that maybe seem off the
beaten path.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I'm not aware at the moment, but they do have
a provision for uploading a PowerPoint presentation into it, so
you have that capability. I think you can add your
own video in the back background. In fact, you can
take your avatar off and just have the video playing
(08:29):
if you want, And you can have your own narration
in the background too. So there's there's lots of capabilities here. Now,
if you racked up too many minutes, then then there's
an up.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Charge for that. Okay, you probably have to move to
another level.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But I'm still kind of new finding out all the
ways to use this. Well.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I think it's super cool and and by the way,
the videos that you made with it, one about the Traders,
eight the founders of Silicon Valley. I knew absolutely nothing
about the founding of Silicon Valley until this morning when
I watch this video and the other one. Should robots
have the right to defend themselves? They're great videos? And
is this just an opportunity to reach a bigger market
(09:13):
for you or a bigger audience that maybe you're not
reaching without putting in as much work? Because how long
does this kind of video take you versus filming yourself,
editing yourself, all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, video like this probably take a couple hours to
put together. Now there's a limit. You can't do a
video longer than five minutes. I think that's the limit. Anyway,
the columns that are right, I've written over five hundred
columns throughout the years.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I can take any one of those columns.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I can just shrink it down to roughly six hundred
words or something like that and then feed it into
this and then I can create a video pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Well, I have to tell you. I mean, I think
this kind of stuff is super cool but also super
dangerous because when I see this, I'm thinking to myself.
How far away are we from having a major election
up ended by a video that is completely fabricated of
one candidate where they are saying awful things or they
appear to be doing something that's illegal, or something along
(10:26):
those lines. I mean, how close are we to that
kind of ard? Ai do you think?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Well, we're I think we're already there.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You can't do it with this program, but with some
of the other ones I've seen. I've seen quite a
few videos that have been fabricated, and at this point
it's fairly easy to spot the one set of the
bad ones, right, But that's we're going to across the
line where you can't tell.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Me are there any cheap Are there something that we
as consumers can look for? They're just going to be
so sophisticated, we're not going to be able.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
To tell Yeah, it's I don't know. Maybe it comes
down to the smell test. I guess, uh, with a
person like that, with that character actually say something like
that or do something like that. I mean, push comes
(11:35):
to show people will do a lot of really strange things.
If somebody is trying to harm your family, you're likely
to take out a gun and shoot somebody you would
not normally do that. So so what's what's uh? I
don't I don't know how to how to actually protect
us from something like this. I think that's going to
(11:58):
be that's going to be a tough issue coming up
over the coming years.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Well, especially because whatever rules you put in place, bad
actors are going to ignore them, right, I mean, that's
pretty much how it goes with anything that you limit.
So it's going to be fascinating to watch. And this
is happening so fast, Thomas, that you know my point.
Four years ago it was fifteen thousand dollars for a
mediocre avatar, and now it's two hundred and sixteen dollars
(12:25):
for an avatar that looks pretty dang good. So well played.
By the way, according to the Internet, Synthesia is the
best best site for AI avatar digital editing. So you
are you're starting to at the top and going from there. Amandy,
this texter said, do you think I would be able
to loan my avatar for a movie and get paid
for it? That was one of the things that they
(12:45):
were trying to sort out in this last Hollywood contract situation.
So I don't know the answer to it. I don't
know the answer to that at all. We shall see.
Let me see here, We're.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Right, go ahead situations well by.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
By an avatar or partner with you to do presentration training.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Videos that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Oh yeah, that I think would be more likely than Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Instead of I mean, but you know, I guess, Oh,
that would be great. I would rent out my avatar
for training videos. I don't know if you know this, Thomas,
and I don't know why you would. My very first
paid acting gig ever, I played a computer chip for
IBM in an inside instructional video for IBM employees. Some
of my proudest moments. I made two hundred dollars, which
(13:38):
was a lot of money for me at that moment.
And I just had to stand and read as if
I were a computer chip. So obviously it was the
role I was meant to play. Thomas Rye. One more question.
Did you hear about the AI mayor who ran in Cheyenne, Wyoming?
Did you hear about this? I did not hear about this.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Oh I haven't heard about that one.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I'm gonna pull it up right now first, Ai.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, I got hard to keep up on all the
news lately.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
So darn much of it, trust me, Thomas, I know no.
Cranne Wyoming rejected the AI mayor and and actually elected
a real uh person. There was a guy, Victor Miller,
who said he planned to ride run Cheyenne using chat GPT.
So not quite the AI mayor that we're talking about,
but definitely something that is probably already happening. I mean
(14:32):
chat GPT, these chat clients, they're changing everything. What do
you think about this new Chinese UH chat client? Have
you looked at that at all?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Deep Seek?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, I've been watching that quite closely. I don't think
it's ready to take over just yet. There's there's a
few few flaws in some of the programming on it,
and it's it's uh biased quite a bit towards China.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
No way, yeah, no way, just ask it about Tannem
and Square. Anyway, we shall see.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yuh huh.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Thomas Fry can be found at futureistspeaker dot com. You
really should watch these videos, Thomas. Now you've given me
something else to try and learn that I'm not going
to be able to, So thanks for that.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I think you'll have it down by the next time
we meet. You'll have a down perfect.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I like your confidence in me, Thomas Fry. I like
your confidence. All right, my friend, I'll see you next month,
all right, thank you? All right, thanks Thomas. I mean,
you know, maybe i'll see him next month. Maybe I'll
just send his avatar. Did you look at these videos?
Did you look at him?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I haven't yet.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I'll have to show I'm not kidding. I mean I
talked to the man once a month. I see him
face to face, and these avatars are amazing. I seriously
am going to what should my ar avatar do? Like
what what I mean? Because here's the thing. I would
do more social media video, but I just don't like
the on camera. I don't like having to film myself
because the lighting sucks and I look, you know, my age,
(16:04):
which is never good. So if I got an AI
avatar and I could just upload AI Mandy stuff, do
you think people would think that was cool or dorky
or both. By the way, i'd like to think my
one cameo client that I got before the holidays, I
wish to gentleman, I'm Mary Christmas on my cameo feet.
So I am officially a paid cameo artist. If you'd
(16:27):
like me to wish you a just go to cameo
and look at Mandy Connell. Mandy, it's reassuring that a
dog can get elected as mayor, but an AI can't. Technically,
technically he wasn't actually an AI mayor. That would be
like Max Headroom running for mayor. Now, Zach, did you
even get my Max Headroom reference? Do you even know
who Max Headroom is?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, and then I'm familiar with him also from the
famous like Chicago TV takeover thing that happened in the
eighties or nineties. Wow, I'm impressed. Max Headroom was probably
the original avatar, although he wasn't a high tech like these.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Mandy.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So, in other words, cutting the annual deficit isn't going
to pay off the national debt. I guess eventually it will.
Eventually it will because as spending goes down, we are
continuing to grow. Our economy is still growing, right, So
we're not looking at a static piece of pie. We're
not looking at a pie where we have the same
(17:28):
number every single year that we're going to deal with.
Here's what I think will happen. If you can get
spending under control, if you can significantly reduce the amount
of money that the FED has pumped into the economy.
Then then you can start to see deficits come down.
But it's going to be a long haul before anything
(17:48):
happens with our national debt. And by the way, I
don't mean to be a negative Nelly. I currently have
zero confidence in US not coming to a debt crisis
at some point. Zero confidence because every massive empire before
US has done the exact same thing that we are
doing right now, and none of them have been able
(18:09):
to avoid the negative repercussions, none of them. Mandy, your
AI avatar should chug a bottle of wine after every
news story. You know, I don't wanna. I don't wanna.
I decided a long time ago that I would never
endorse alcohol products because alcohol is very destructive to so
many people's lives. So yeah, they won't. Maybe chug some
(18:31):
nice fizzy water with a giant belch at the end
of it. Hey, Mandy, I don't know if your avatar
would be dorky or not, but it would be not real.
I should have missus roper as my avatar says this
to No, it's got to be me. It's gotta be me.
If you keep saying aar avatar. The Colorado Dems will
make sure it gets banned. Okay, that's funny, very very funny.
(18:52):
AI avatar a I avatar. So we'll see. Maybe I'll
make myself an avatar. That seems like a lot of work.
Mandy Vanity over fifty is the first sign of sinility.
Age with grace sixty five, toll Toils listener, I don't
believe in aging with grace. I think aging with grace
(19:12):
reminds me of old ladies and moo moos with their hairs.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
In a bun.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
At my age, when I was a kid, fifty five
year old women in my hometown all had gray hair
and they all wore it up in the same bun,
and they all had sensible shoes in slacks. No, Nah,
I'm not going out without a fight. I'm just not.
I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm not rushing to
have plastic surgery or anything like that. But a lot
(19:38):
of the stuff I do at Downtown's or retail Revolution
has to do with keeping my face looking good. Seriously,
when you're in the media, it all feels a little
bit different. Trust me, trust me on that. Okay, we're
gonna take a quick time out. When we get back,
we got to talk about Canada's capitulation and Donald Trump
using tariffs as a bludgeon. Do that next
And said, Mandy, just letting you know. The deficit is
thirty three to thirty six trillion. No, that's the national debt.
The deficit is what we overspend every year, and in
twenty twenty four we overspent one point eight trillion dollars. Currently,
as of this moment, our national our deficit for this
year is eight hundred and thirty six billion dollars. So
(00:20):
I mean that's progress, I guess. But the debt is
the total number. The deficit is the annual number. So
that is where that I just want to clear up
any confusion there. And speaking of confusion, if you go
to the blog today and you look at either of
the extremely interesting videos that my friend Thomas Fry put together,
you may be confused thinking you're seeing the man in
(00:41):
those videos. But it is not the man. It is
an avatar of Thomas Fry And now the real Thomas
Fry or is it? Are you the real Thomas FRYE?
Am I just talking to an avatar? I can't tell. Thomas.
Welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
This today to change the topics that you've been talking about,
and we're going to talk about AI avatars.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
This is a fun topic.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
What is the explain. Let's start at the very beginning,
because you know, there's a lot of people in my
listening audience like me who are basically Luddites, right, So
what is an ai avatar and why would one have one?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, an ai avatar you can create one of yourself,
and you can use other ones that are already made
that are in the system, but you can actually create
one of yourself so it looks like you, it'll talk
like you, same manners and gestures and things, and then
you can use this to create your own videos. So
(01:42):
then if this eliminates the need for doing lots of
fancy lighting and getting camera guys and editing people up
every time you want to create a video, you can
create a video just on your own using your avatar,
and all you have to do is feed in the
text and the scene changes and stuff, and you can
(02:05):
actually produce some pretty interesting videos that way.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now, Thomas, you did this with a program called Synthesia,
And you told me how much did you spend on this,
because I'm going to make this point here in just
a second, how much did you spend on creating your
own avatar that you can use to do these videos?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Two hundred and sixteen dollars, and that it enables you
at a great actually three personal avatars if you want.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
I was selling Thomas off the air that I have
a friend who does training courses and she paid a
company like four years ago about fifteen thousand dollars to
do this very thing, and your avatar is better than hers.
I know I shouldn't say that, but if I didn't
know you and I, you know, you and I were
face to face for these interviews that we do, I
could tell it was not you. But if I didn't
(02:54):
know you, I'm not sure I would have been able
to tell. How I mean, you have to be pleased
with the way it came out.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I thought it's kind of funny because the avatar
actually sounds to me more like me than like my kids.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
They'll say, no, it doesn't sound like you at all.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh no, I think it sounds like you very much.
I think it very well. Hang on, let's just do
this right now. So let me just let me have
my audio there, Zach real quick on my computer.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I'm the creator is eight the eight people who are
the behind the scenes founders of Silicon Valley. The story
of Silicon Valley starts with the invention of the transistor
in nineteen forty.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I mean, it sounds like you're reading, but it does
sound like you, I think, and that was Theari avatar.
So what are you using this for? What would a
normal person use this for?
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You can use this for training videos, you can use
this for promotions.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
There's just a thousands of things you can do.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I mean, if you want to become an influence sir
on social media, this is a perfect tool to use to.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Do to that well.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And that's kind of what I'm looking at. Ask okay here,
I'm a personality I hate doing social media videos. I
just I hate it. I don't enjoy being on camera.
I never have. And so this for me would be
perfect to be able to upload my content which I'd
love to share, but not actually have to do hair,
(04:27):
makeup and all those other things. I might create an
Ai Nandy this afternoon. I don't know how long did
this process take.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So it'll have you when you're going to create your
own avatar, it'll have you get on camera and then
read through a script. You want to make sure you're
well lived and you have a good background and everything.
Or you can just have a green screen behind you
if you want, but then it'll have have you read
through this script, which is about, I don't know, two
(04:57):
and a half three minutes long, and then and then
you'll send it in and it takes like a day for.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Them to get it back to you.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
But you can also use your avatar to speak in
something like eighty different languages.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Actually, wait a minute, so your avatar could actually be
smarter than you.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, a lot smarter and well much more well versed
in other languages.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
That actually, I mean, so basically, what you're telling me
is that I could take over the entire world, is
what you're telling me, because I could translate my thoughts
into languages that could be seen and heard all over
the world. I mean, why not Why wouldn't I do that?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I think you should.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
One thing I will, I will say, Thomas, when I
saw this this morning, the entire Hollywood strike that had
that happened fairly recently really became understandable watching this video,
because if Hollywood had the opportunity or the rights to
use someone's voice and image in perpetuity like they were
(06:07):
asking for, they could create entire masterpieces. I mean I
feel like we really a few years away before a
first AI movie becomes a thing, right, I mean pure
AI movie where Thomas Frye is starring in this movie
with Mandy Connell, and they'll have us in all these
action scenes and stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, there's actually some pretty tight security on this to
make sure that you're using your avatar yourself and not
somebody else's using it.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So there, I think they're.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Pretty cautious about that that thing actually happening. But I mean,
this is just one company. There's other companies doing the
same thing. I don't know how how this ranks. There
might be some better ones out there. I tried this one.
It seemed easy enough to use, and so I went
with it. Each one of these will have a learning curve,
(07:04):
and once you learn it, then you want to stick
with that company.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Now, are you able to do videos through this company's synthesia,
because I'm thinking, like, imagine if you were a small
business owner and you were trying to scale your business,
but you want to make sure that your values are
being shared with new employees. Right, one of the hardest
parts of scalability is making sure that new employees know
what your vision and your values are all about. If
(07:28):
I'm the owner of the company, I don't have time
to talk to each individual employee. But if I could
go and create a current like today, you know, some
sort of current situation that I could bring home to
drive home those values, I think there's real there could
be a real value in that. So trying to think
(07:49):
outside the box on who could use this technology? Now,
are you aware, like you mentioned before, it's using for
training and stuff like that. Are you aware of people
using it for other purposes that maybe seem off the
beaten path.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I'm not aware at the moment, but they do have
a provision for uploading a PowerPoint presentation into it, so
you have that capability. I think you can add your
own video in the back background. In fact, you can
take your avatar off and just have the video playing
(08:29):
if you want, And you can have your own narration
in the background too. So there's there's lots of capabilities here. Now,
if you racked up too many minutes, then then there's
an up.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Charge for that. Okay, you probably have to move to
another level.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But I'm still kind of new finding out all the
ways to use this. Well.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I think it's super cool and and by the way,
the videos that you made with it, one about the Traders,
eight the founders of Silicon Valley. I knew absolutely nothing
about the founding of Silicon Valley until this morning when
I watch this video and the other one. Should robots
have the right to defend themselves? They're great videos? And
is this just an opportunity to reach a bigger market
(09:13):
for you or a bigger audience that maybe you're not
reaching without putting in as much work? Because how long
does this kind of video take you versus filming yourself,
editing yourself, all of that stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, video like this probably take a couple hours to
put together. Now there's a limit. You can't do a
video longer than five minutes. I think that's the limit. Anyway,
the columns that are right, I've written over five hundred
columns throughout the years.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
I can take any one of those columns.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I can just shrink it down to roughly six hundred
words or something like that and then feed it into
this and then I can create a video pretty quick.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Well, I have to tell you. I mean, I think
this kind of stuff is super cool but also super
dangerous because when I see this, I'm thinking to myself.
How far away are we from having a major election
up ended by a video that is completely fabricated of
one candidate where they are saying awful things or they
appear to be doing something that's illegal, or something along
(10:26):
those lines. I mean, how close are we to that
kind of ard? Ai do you think?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Well, we're I think we're already there.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You can't do it with this program, but with some
of the other ones I've seen. I've seen quite a
few videos that have been fabricated, and at this point
it's fairly easy to spot the one set of the
bad ones, right, But that's we're going to across the
line where you can't tell.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Me are there any cheap Are there something that we
as consumers can look for? They're just going to be
so sophisticated, we're not going to be able.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
To tell Yeah, it's I don't know. Maybe it comes
down to the smell test. I guess, uh, with a
person like that, with that character actually say something like
that or do something like that. I mean, push comes
(11:35):
to show people will do a lot of really strange things.
If somebody is trying to harm your family, you're likely
to take out a gun and shoot somebody you would
not normally do that. So so what's what's uh? I
don't I don't know how to how to actually protect
us from something like this. I think that's going to
(11:58):
be that's going to be a tough issue coming up
over the coming years.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Well, especially because whatever rules you put in place, bad
actors are going to ignore them, right, I mean, that's
pretty much how it goes with anything that you limit.
So it's going to be fascinating to watch. And this
is happening so fast, Thomas, that you know my point.
Four years ago it was fifteen thousand dollars for a
mediocre avatar, and now it's two hundred and sixteen dollars
(12:25):
for an avatar that looks pretty dang good. So well played.
By the way, according to the Internet, Synthesia is the
best best site for AI avatar digital editing. So you
are you're starting to at the top and going from there. Amandy,
this texter said, do you think I would be able
to loan my avatar for a movie and get paid
for it? That was one of the things that they
(12:45):
were trying to sort out in this last Hollywood contract situation.
So I don't know the answer to it. I don't
know the answer to that at all. We shall see.
Let me see here, We're.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Right, go ahead situations well by.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
By an avatar or partner with you to do presentration training.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Videos that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Oh yeah, that I think would be more likely than Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Instead of I mean, but you know, I guess, Oh,
that would be great. I would rent out my avatar
for training videos. I don't know if you know this, Thomas,
and I don't know why you would. My very first
paid acting gig ever, I played a computer chip for
IBM in an inside instructional video for IBM employees. Some
of my proudest moments. I made two hundred dollars, which
(13:38):
was a lot of money for me at that moment.
And I just had to stand and read as if
I were a computer chip. So obviously it was the
role I was meant to play. Thomas Rye. One more question.
Did you hear about the AI mayor who ran in Cheyenne, Wyoming?
Did you hear about this? I did not hear about this.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Oh I haven't heard about that one.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I'm gonna pull it up right now first, Ai.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Yeah, I got hard to keep up on all the
news lately.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
So darn much of it, trust me, Thomas, I know no.
Cranne Wyoming rejected the AI mayor and and actually elected
a real uh person. There was a guy, Victor Miller,
who said he planned to ride run Cheyenne using chat GPT.
So not quite the AI mayor that we're talking about,
but definitely something that is probably already happening. I mean
(14:32):
chat GPT, these chat clients, they're changing everything. What do
you think about this new Chinese UH chat client? Have
you looked at that at all?
Speaker 3 (14:43):
Deep Seek?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, I've been watching that quite closely. I don't think
it's ready to take over just yet. There's there's a
few few flaws in some of the programming on it,
and it's it's uh biased quite a bit towards China.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
No way, yeah, no way, just ask it about Tannem
and Square. Anyway, we shall see.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yuh huh.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Thomas Fry can be found at futureistspeaker dot com. You
really should watch these videos, Thomas. Now you've given me
something else to try and learn that I'm not going
to be able to, So thanks for that.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I think you'll have it down by the next time
we meet. You'll have a down perfect.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I like your confidence in me, Thomas Fry. I like
your confidence. All right, my friend, I'll see you next month,
all right, thank you? All right, thanks Thomas. I mean,
you know, maybe i'll see him next month. Maybe I'll
just send his avatar. Did you look at these videos?
Did you look at him?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I haven't yet.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I'll have to show I'm not kidding. I mean I
talked to the man once a month. I see him
face to face, and these avatars are amazing. I seriously
am going to what should my ar avatar do? Like
what what I mean? Because here's the thing. I would
do more social media video, but I just don't like
the on camera. I don't like having to film myself
because the lighting sucks and I look, you know, my age,
(16:04):
which is never good. So if I got an AI
avatar and I could just upload AI Mandy stuff, do
you think people would think that was cool or dorky
or both. By the way, i'd like to think my
one cameo client that I got before the holidays, I
wish to gentleman, I'm Mary Christmas on my cameo feet.
So I am officially a paid cameo artist. If you'd
(16:27):
like me to wish you a just go to cameo
and look at Mandy Connell. Mandy, it's reassuring that a
dog can get elected as mayor, but an AI can't. Technically,
technically he wasn't actually an AI mayor. That would be
like Max Headroom running for mayor. Now, Zach, did you
even get my Max Headroom reference? Do you even know
who Max Headroom is?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, and then I'm familiar with him also from the
famous like Chicago TV takeover thing that happened in the
eighties or nineties. Wow, I'm impressed. Max Headroom was probably
the original avatar, although he wasn't a high tech like these.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Mandy.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So, in other words, cutting the annual deficit isn't going
to pay off the national debt. I guess eventually it will.
Eventually it will because as spending goes down, we are
continuing to grow. Our economy is still growing, right, So
we're not looking at a static piece of pie. We're
not looking at a pie where we have the same
(17:28):
number every single year that we're going to deal with.
Here's what I think will happen. If you can get
spending under control, if you can significantly reduce the amount
of money that the FED has pumped into the economy.
Then then you can start to see deficits come down.
But it's going to be a long haul before anything
(17:48):
happens with our national debt. And by the way, I
don't mean to be a negative Nelly. I currently have
zero confidence in US not coming to a debt crisis
at some point. Zero confidence because every massive empire before
US has done the exact same thing that we are
doing right now, and none of them have been able
(18:09):
to avoid the negative repercussions, none of them. Mandy, your
AI avatar should chug a bottle of wine after every
news story. You know, I don't wanna. I don't wanna.
I decided a long time ago that I would never
endorse alcohol products because alcohol is very destructive to so
many people's lives. So yeah, they won't. Maybe chug some
(18:31):
nice fizzy water with a giant belch at the end
of it. Hey, Mandy, I don't know if your avatar
would be dorky or not, but it would be not real.
I should have missus roper as my avatar says this
to No, it's got to be me. It's gotta be me.
If you keep saying aar avatar. The Colorado Dems will
make sure it gets banned. Okay, that's funny, very very funny.
(18:52):
AI avatar a I avatar. So we'll see. Maybe I'll
make myself an avatar. That seems like a lot of work.
Mandy Vanity over fifty is the first sign of sinility.
Age with grace sixty five, toll Toils listener, I don't
believe in aging with grace. I think aging with grace
(19:12):
reminds me of old ladies and moo moos with their hairs.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
In a bun.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
At my age, when I was a kid, fifty five
year old women in my hometown all had gray hair
and they all wore it up in the same bun,
and they all had sensible shoes in slacks. No, Nah,
I'm not going out without a fight. I'm just not.
I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm not rushing to
have plastic surgery or anything like that. But a lot
(19:38):
of the stuff I do at Downtown's or retail Revolution
has to do with keeping my face looking good. Seriously,
when you're in the media, it all feels a little
bit different. Trust me, trust me on that. Okay, we're
gonna take a quick time out. When we get back,
we got to talk about Canada's capitulation and Donald Trump
using tariffs as a bludgeon. Do that next
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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