June 18, 2025 • 6 mins
Amy talks with ABC News tech reporter Mike Dobuski about Meta creating a superintelligence lab & the Trump phone plan.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say good morning to ABC's tech reporter. It's Mike Debusky.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Morning Mike, Good morning, Amy. How are you good.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
So Meta is making moves to make itself really really smart.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, exactly. So Meta is investing in what's called a
super intelligence lab, and they are making this major investment,
more than fourteen billion dollars in this company called Scale Ai,
in order to do that. So what Scale Ai is
is they are a human verified AI research firm. Essentially,
they're a picks and shovels company. They're a company that
(00:32):
gives the larger large language models, right the Googles and
the Open Ayes of the world, the material they need
to train their chatbots and AI systems. So they're kind
of behind the scenes, but they're really important in the
AI space. Meta is making a more than fourteen billion
dollar investment in this company. They are making a forty
(00:53):
nine percent acquisition stake in this company, and they're getting
their CEO in the process, a guy named Alexander or Wang,
to head up this new super intelligence lab with the
goal of creating technology that they say will be smarter
than the human brain, that will go beyond the capabilities
of what we can do as humans and usher in
this new era of technology. Amy I can already tell
(01:16):
that your eyebrow is raising. But there is reason to
be skeptical here. But that is what they say they
are doing, and Meta seems very committed to the idea
because fourteen billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Okay, So Mike is is it to catch up to
like open AI or is it to go beyond them both?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Essentially? So Meta has found itself sort of behind in
the AI race right. Their large latest large language model,
it's known as LAMA four, kind of you know, failed
to meet expectations. It doesn't do quite as well on
some of the tests that we subject these large language
models to. And open AI and and some others out
there anthropic Google are kind of at the head of
(01:56):
this and Meta doesn't want to be left behind because
they see this as again kind of the next turn
of the screw, the next evolution in the world of technology,
and they think that scale AI are the kind of
guys to help do this. So that is part of this.
There are again some reasons to be skeptical of this
idea of a superintelligence that's gonna, you know, change our
(02:17):
lives and let us all go on vacation and have
you know, computers handle things. For example, Apple recently put
out a reportant Apple itself is very much in the
AI race that found that the current cutting edge of
large language models, known as large reasoning models, have quote
fundamental limitations, that they're not quite as smart as we
think they are, that they're not really reasoning in the
(02:38):
way that our human brains do. Reports from Arizona State
University and others sort of back that claim up. Even still,
this is a hot topic in Silicon Valley, with Sam Altman,
who's the CEO of Open Ai, telling President Trump recently
that they are going to achieve this super intelligent computer
that matches or surpasses the capabilities of the human brain
(03:00):
by the end of his term. Dario Amiday, who's the
head of Anthropics, said that we could see major disruptions
from this type of technology in the next two to
three years.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay, so it's exciting and scary al at the same time. Okay,
so cool job. Yeah, let's talk about this big, beautiful phone.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes. So on Monday here in New York City, the
Trump Organization announced that they are making a major move
into the world of telecom. They are announcing Trump Mobile,
which is what's known as an mv and O, a
mobile virtual network operator, which is essentially a small cell
phone provider that kind of piggybacks off the networks of
the larger providers. So it's like Mint Mobile, It's exactly
(03:37):
like Minmobile. These two companies are going to compete with
one another. Cricket Wireless is another one that is in
this space. And as part of this, despite the fact
that they say Trump Mobile will work with pretty much
any modern smartphone, they are launching their own proprietary device.
It's called the T one. Technically its full name is
the T one eight thousand and two Gold version, and
that name is not a missedover. It is gold. It
(03:59):
is true in gold leaf for or some sort of gold.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Effect, and it seems to be if it's tied to Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh of course. And it has a big T on
the back and an American flag as you would expect,
and it appears to be a pretty standard Android device.
They are saying that this is going to go for
about five hundred dollars and that you know, runs Android fifteen.
It has a six point eight inch screen, one hundred
and twenty hertz for fresh rate, what you would kind
of expect from a phone at that price point in
(04:27):
the Android ecosystem. But once you dive a little deeper
into the specs that we have on the website, which
is pretty much all we have on this phone, no
one's really gotten a chance to play around with it.
It gets a little confusing. Under the storage section, they
say that it has twelve gigabytes of RAM, and RAM
and storage are two different things. There's no information about
a processor, and a processor is pretty important to the
(04:47):
world of smartphones, and up until recently on the website
they claimed it had a five thousand millionamp hour camera,
but milliamp hours are used to describe batteries, so there
were some typos on the website, it seems like. And
the photo that they have, again the only photo that
we have of this device, appears to be a rendering,
a computer generated image, or some sort of photoshopped deal.
Because it has three camera array it looks sort of
(05:10):
like an iPhone trimmed in gold. But there's no flash
on that camera array, which is what you would expect
to see on something like that. So maybe reason for
pause if you're thinking about purchasing a t one, but
you still can put down one hundred dollars deposit. If
none of that is enough to dissuade you, do we have.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Any idea of a timeframe, like when they're going to
launch the service and start selling the phones.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So on the website it says coming soon. There's also
other reporting out there that says that it could be
as soon as the fall. But a real wrench in
all this amy is that the Trump organization says they
plan to build this phone in the United States. There
is no major smartphone that is built in the United States.
We don't really have an infrastructure to do it. And
that would mean that, you know, if they are serious
(05:55):
about this, they would have to spin up a factory,
they would have to hire workers, they would have to
train workers don't train workers to build smartphones here, set
up supply chains and suppliers and what have you. It
would be really a monumental task that we have not
seen undertaken in the United States, and at five hundred dollars,
that is I think a big reason for skepticism because,
(06:15):
especially within that timeframe, that's that's that's kind of unrealistic.
So it is possible that they're going to import a
phone from elsewhere, but also that would run counter to
the Trump organizations kind.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Of made in America thing.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Attempt to get yeah, manufacturing back to America. But we'll
just have to wait and see
Speaker 1 (06:30):
All right, ABC's tech reporter Mike Debuski, thanks so much,
of course, Amy take he
Let's say good morning to ABC's tech reporter. It's Mike Debusky.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Morning Mike, Good morning, Amy. How are you good.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
So Meta is making moves to make itself really really smart.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, exactly. So Meta is investing in what's called a
super intelligence lab, and they are making this major investment,
more than fourteen billion dollars in this company called Scale Ai,
in order to do that. So what Scale Ai is
is they are a human verified AI research firm. Essentially,
they're a picks and shovels company. They're a company that
(00:32):
gives the larger large language models, right the Googles and
the Open Ayes of the world, the material they need
to train their chatbots and AI systems. So they're kind
of behind the scenes, but they're really important in the
AI space. Meta is making a more than fourteen billion
dollar investment in this company. They are making a forty
(00:53):
nine percent acquisition stake in this company, and they're getting
their CEO in the process, a guy named Alexander or Wang,
to head up this new super intelligence lab with the
goal of creating technology that they say will be smarter
than the human brain, that will go beyond the capabilities
of what we can do as humans and usher in
this new era of technology. Amy I can already tell
(01:16):
that your eyebrow is raising. But there is reason to
be skeptical here. But that is what they say they
are doing, and Meta seems very committed to the idea
because fourteen billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Okay, So Mike is is it to catch up to
like open AI or is it to go beyond them both?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Essentially? So Meta has found itself sort of behind in
the AI race right. Their large latest large language model,
it's known as LAMA four, kind of you know, failed
to meet expectations. It doesn't do quite as well on
some of the tests that we subject these large language
models to. And open AI and and some others out
there anthropic Google are kind of at the head of
(01:56):
this and Meta doesn't want to be left behind because
they see this as again kind of the next turn
of the screw, the next evolution in the world of technology,
and they think that scale AI are the kind of
guys to help do this. So that is part of this.
There are again some reasons to be skeptical of this
idea of a superintelligence that's gonna, you know, change our
(02:17):
lives and let us all go on vacation and have
you know, computers handle things. For example, Apple recently put
out a reportant Apple itself is very much in the
AI race that found that the current cutting edge of
large language models, known as large reasoning models, have quote
fundamental limitations, that they're not quite as smart as we
think they are, that they're not really reasoning in the
(02:38):
way that our human brains do. Reports from Arizona State
University and others sort of back that claim up. Even still,
this is a hot topic in Silicon Valley, with Sam Altman,
who's the CEO of Open Ai, telling President Trump recently
that they are going to achieve this super intelligent computer
that matches or surpasses the capabilities of the human brain
(03:00):
by the end of his term. Dario Amiday, who's the
head of Anthropics, said that we could see major disruptions
from this type of technology in the next two to
three years.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay, so it's exciting and scary al at the same time. Okay,
so cool job. Yeah, let's talk about this big, beautiful phone.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes. So on Monday here in New York City, the
Trump Organization announced that they are making a major move
into the world of telecom. They are announcing Trump Mobile,
which is what's known as an mv and O, a
mobile virtual network operator, which is essentially a small cell
phone provider that kind of piggybacks off the networks of
the larger providers. So it's like Mint Mobile, It's exactly
(03:37):
like Minmobile. These two companies are going to compete with
one another. Cricket Wireless is another one that is in
this space. And as part of this, despite the fact
that they say Trump Mobile will work with pretty much
any modern smartphone, they are launching their own proprietary device.
It's called the T one. Technically its full name is
the T one eight thousand and two Gold version, and
that name is not a missedover. It is gold. It
(03:59):
is true in gold leaf for or some sort of gold.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Effect, and it seems to be if it's tied to Trump.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Oh of course. And it has a big T on
the back and an American flag as you would expect,
and it appears to be a pretty standard Android device.
They are saying that this is going to go for
about five hundred dollars and that you know, runs Android fifteen.
It has a six point eight inch screen, one hundred
and twenty hertz for fresh rate, what you would kind
of expect from a phone at that price point in
(04:27):
the Android ecosystem. But once you dive a little deeper
into the specs that we have on the website, which
is pretty much all we have on this phone, no
one's really gotten a chance to play around with it.
It gets a little confusing. Under the storage section, they
say that it has twelve gigabytes of RAM, and RAM
and storage are two different things. There's no information about
a processor, and a processor is pretty important to the
(04:47):
world of smartphones, and up until recently on the website
they claimed it had a five thousand millionamp hour camera,
but milliamp hours are used to describe batteries, so there
were some typos on the website, it seems like. And
the photo that they have, again the only photo that
we have of this device, appears to be a rendering,
a computer generated image, or some sort of photoshopped deal.
Because it has three camera array it looks sort of
(05:10):
like an iPhone trimmed in gold. But there's no flash
on that camera array, which is what you would expect
to see on something like that. So maybe reason for
pause if you're thinking about purchasing a t one, but
you still can put down one hundred dollars deposit. If
none of that is enough to dissuade you, do we have.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Any idea of a timeframe, like when they're going to
launch the service and start selling the phones.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So on the website it says coming soon. There's also
other reporting out there that says that it could be
as soon as the fall. But a real wrench in
all this amy is that the Trump organization says they
plan to build this phone in the United States. There
is no major smartphone that is built in the United States.
We don't really have an infrastructure to do it. And
that would mean that, you know, if they are serious
(05:55):
about this, they would have to spin up a factory,
they would have to hire workers, they would have to
train workers don't train workers to build smartphones here, set
up supply chains and suppliers and what have you. It
would be really a monumental task that we have not
seen undertaken in the United States, and at five hundred dollars,
that is I think a big reason for skepticism because,
(06:15):
especially within that timeframe, that's that's that's kind of unrealistic.
So it is possible that they're going to import a
phone from elsewhere, but also that would run counter to
the Trump organizations kind.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Of made in America thing.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Attempt to get yeah, manufacturing back to America. But we'll
just have to wait and see
Speaker 1 (06:30):
All right, ABC's tech reporter Mike Debuski, thanks so much,
of course, Amy take he
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