July 13, 2026 • 24 mins
(July 13, 2026)
Billionaire exodus? Survey says California drew in 10x more venture capital than any other state this year. Free samples with a side of serotonin: Welcome to the Costco feeding frenzy. With AI character Tilly Norwood set for feature film debut, Hollywood debates what it means to be an actor. California wolves are eating much more cattle than wild prey.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six fortyfi AM six forty Bill Handle on a Monday morning,
July the thirteenth. Some of the stories we're looking at
the Cold War in Iran. Well, it's heating up. The
(00:21):
ceasefire seems to be ceasing, and the fire seems to
be increasing. Senator miss McConnell, Well, we have a picture
of him. He is looking a little worse for wear,
but it seems like he's going to be okay. He
had a fall and a concussion, but didn't have any
(00:41):
lasting injuries. And Lindsey Graham, Senator Lizzie Graham, one of
the most well known senators, has died. Now I'm going
to throw something at you which I have said before
and we've talked about it. The billionaire exodus from California. Yeah,
money leaving California, businesses leaving California. Regulation way too high,
(01:10):
taxes way too high, very difficult place to do business. Okay,
how about this. It's pulled in more than three hundred
and thirty five billion dollars in venture capital last year,
New York ten times less worth ten times more than
(01:32):
New York. How is that possible? Nearly eight billion dollars
and invested across two hundred and seven deals, led by
space and defense firms. But ninety percent of the new
money is chasing AI giants anthropic open AI, leaving non
(01:53):
startups AI startups smaller funds. They just don't have enough.
That's really what it's about. Are these AI companies, even
startups that have attracted so much money, unpreceded pile of
capital coming in. Why is that? Is it true that
(02:14):
we are over regulated, overtax You bet it is. But
the deep pool of talent, rich investors, tech infrastructure that
turns it around makes it ground zero for the AI
intelligence explosion. La San Diego, La, including Orange County, has
(02:35):
just an incredibly strong tech market and the infrastructure that's needed,
and a campaign for new tax billionaires have convinced some
ultra rich residents to shift other states. Texas does a
lot of that you have? Florida does a lot of that?
You have? Ohio? Come to Ohio, Come to Texas well.
(02:56):
The reality is, even though we have high property, high
energy costs, anti business regime, you know what, it's that
top talent and it's only here for the most part.
In California, now as rotten as everything is. The state's
economy grew five percent last year. That's huge, to a
(03:19):
record four point twenty five trillion dollars. We are number
four in the world economy the California it's it's a
monetary policy and revenue and income four point two five
trillion dollars more than every other country other than the US,
(03:44):
China and Germany, home to nearly four hundred billion dollar startups.
It's the go to address for space and defense tech companies.
I mean, it is just crazy. Three months that end
in June, California companies raised over one hundred billion dollars
in venture capital. Three companies Anthropic Project Prometheus, which is
(04:10):
Jeff Bezos Anderill Industries picked up seventy five percent of
that amount. Anthropic alone raised sixty five billion dollars, which
values the company at nearly a trillion dollars. Which none
of these companies it makes sense with evaluation, none of them.
And there is a big issue as to with the
(04:32):
amount of money being thrown and invested in AI by
the hundreds of billions of dollars, does it pay well?
These companies and investors are playing the long game on
this one. This is not going to be your traditional
businesses to you have a year of burning money and
(04:53):
then all of a sudden it starts turning a profit.
LA Southern California ranked only to Silicon Valley and New
York actually, but New York's way way down. Bobby Franklin,
president of the National Venture Capital Association industry group, says
investment activity is actually picking up. Fundraising is improving. Early
(05:19):
signs that the IPO market is coming up. Early signs,
but it seems to be right now. AI well, AI
in aerospace, defense companies also are up. You have industrial parts, software, consulting,
life sciences, other sectors in Southern California attracted venture money,
(05:43):
but as I said, nearly ninety percent went to AI
firms ninety percent. Last year it was sixty five percent.
And according to Stanford University in a study, if you're
a tech company and you're not an AI company, it's
going to be very, very difficult to raise money. Smaller
(06:08):
middle of the road venture funds without large AI holdings
are just struggling to get the money, struggling to get
venture capital. And you can't build a company, particularly a
tech company, without venture capital. It just doesn't exist. It's
actually hard to build any company that grows rapidly without
venture capital. You just need it. You need it for infrastructure,
(06:30):
you need it for marketing, you need it for R
and D. Okay, Now, of course we've all been to
Costco and we all know what Costco is about in
a big way. Not only the great prices, of course,
the membership cup club where you pay money to become
a member. One hundred and forty five million people are members,
(06:53):
and this is just straight money in their pockets. So
how does Costco sell more than any other food purveyor
out there? Not only the samples I mean, excuse me,
not only the discounts you get because of the way
they produce their retailing model a big box store. No
(07:17):
displays other than there's your one product up there and
then the price. Nope, here's how it works. It's mojo
and that is samples, the free samples virtually everything in
the food part of the store. And people love free food.
(07:37):
Costco loves free food. Why is that because Costco makes
a fortune from free food. Now, you would think that
free food those samples would increase sales a little bit.
They are astronomical sales. And the people. I love the
people that give the samples. First of all, it's all
(07:58):
ages now, and now they have old people that are
about to die, which they didn't have before. They have
people that don't speak a word of English. That is
fairly new. And it runs all the way from people
who just don't care. I mean, they're just there putting
the samples up to carnival barkers who are really into it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Chicken nuggets, Get your chicken nuggets here, free sample of
chicken nuggets.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So why does it work so much? And this has
become legion in terms of their influencers. There are people
that go around every day a couple things about Costco
that are horrible about the samples at my Costco. It's
the Korean ladies that will literally push you out of
(08:46):
the way and tackle you. And then you have the
long lines people just waiting for those samples to come
out of that little toaster oven. And sometimes there are
seven or eight people, sometimes there's ten people. And you
come back and you run out and you come back
and we're gonna be ready in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Neil is a Costco aficionado and has studied Costco. So Costco, well,
you know, chicken nuggets are a big deal, Burritos are
a big deal. People line up to those. Those little
energy drinks and health drinks. Nobody lines up for those. Nobody.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
You're right the vast majority of the time, you don't
when Max was small that we would try like baby
stuff or things like that snacks for him.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
But think about it this way.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I'm gonna guess with my wife and me, probably six
or seven out of ten times, if we try something
hot or warm and we like it, we.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Buy It's that's the entire issue.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Something about getting it warm. You're probably they're a little hungry.
You're gnauching while you're shopping, and I think it keeps
people mosing around. They put them in different locations. It's
just nothing better than sampling something and going, I really
like that.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
I'm going to bring that home.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
A couple things. Costco when it gave up our Hebrew
National hot dogs, when they give up their chiros, it
was the end of the world for a lot of us.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I don't see those choices personally, I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Oh my god, they were fabulous. Also, one of the
big issues in which Costco shoppers are devastated is the
sample stopped during COVID. Oh my god, the human.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Er how much they lost during that period.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
It just was of that. Yeah, here's what studies actually,
their studies about this handouts thrill shoppers keep coming back
for more. And as you said, something when you taste it,
and I've done this by it. But here's what normally
happens is I've thrown away Costco food, which is hard
(11:05):
to believe, and that is I'll take a sample of
something and it tastes pretty good, so I will buy it,
and when it gets home, I go ahead and heat
it up, prepare it, and it just doesn't taste as good.
It just doesn't work for me. The samples, there are
something about samples that put it on another level when people.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Buy for you because they're free. Yeah, that's true, you
taste the free yep. Also with Costco, it's not just
goosing sales. Free samples are actually driving more annual fees.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
They did a study. Annual fees go up when they
do samples because they compared when the samples go down,
annual membership go down. And also you know that first
impression that tastes good, Well, sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't.
Now Costco itself doesn't do it. Demonstration people don't work
(12:12):
for Costco who do this. One of the companies is
Club Demonstration services that hire people, and if you look
at them, I think the people that are hired are
either special needs, unintelligible in terms of language, so old
that they're falling apart. That tends to be the people
(12:35):
who do the sampling certainly not. And you know what,
even though it costs, well, it really doesn't cost because
the amount of money that Costco makes by having those
free samples, and it brings out the worst of pizza
people too, especially with things like pizza rolls. Seems like
(13:00):
it's all you can eat buffet. A few names for
these people that go around Costco and literally for hours.
Then I'll do that free samples here, I'll go back
three four times for the same sample. And I'm embarrassed
to do that, so I turned my shirt inside out.
I will sneak up and they don't care.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
You know, these people don't with the story mustache.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, and I'm not alone. You know what they call
what Costco people call these people locusts, jackals, zombies, trash
pandas I like that vultures. Costco samples. It's a world
onto itself. Okay, Now, Tillie Norwood is an actress sort of,
(13:53):
this is a I in a very interesting way. She
is or it's going to be the star of a movie.
And filmmakers and audiences have first of all asked who
deserves the credit for it? And what is she? Well,
she's certainly a character, but she's an AI generated character.
(14:16):
And boy, that's changed everything around about acting artistry. Now
you know what the word actor means. It's you know,
actors or actors, and they're people. Well, Tilly Norwood is not.
She's basically or it's basically codes and pixels. And last
(14:37):
week's an announcement that Tilly would star in this feature
film called Misaligned sparked once again the debate about AI's
impact on Hollywood jobs and something even more basic, What
is Tilly? Is it a she? Is it?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Or her?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Is it an it? And you have a reader's comments
on the Times came in a me One urged journalists
to stop writing about this thing like it's a person.
Another said, how is this not just an animated film?
A third objected, She's not an AI actor, she's an
AI software program. Now a quick word. No one's ever
(15:16):
confused Woody from Toy Story right with the voice of
Tom Hanks. The characters themselves are well in this case, characters,
not animated characters. Do they deserve acting awards? And till
he is testing whether these assumptions are holding? Is this
(15:39):
a performance? The gal who started this, a woman who
started this, Elaine vander Velden Right, Elaine vanderveld got her
start she was a filmmaker, moved into AI and she says,
I understand the fear. I had the same fear when
AI first came out. Now, this movie is set in
(16:00):
the Tilly Verse. It's a coming of age drama. The
feature follows Tilly, who is an Aianity. So it's about
an Aianity with no lived experience of its own that
gradually develops desires, ambitions, shame as it learns to be human.
So it's about the very question of what Tilly is.
(16:22):
But how about when Tilly becomes a superhero or becomes
someone in the hospital who is dying, who becomes any
performance out there transforms himself or herself without the technology
that is used from real actor to some kind of
(16:45):
a monster. This is someone who is one hundred percent
not a person now right now? Well, the technology is
saying people have to deal with this, people have to create.
But what's AI going to do? AI is going to
(17:06):
expand on Tilly? Now? Real emotions? Here is the issue.
Can an AI generated character really produce real emotions as
far as looking like a person? Man, sometimes you can't tell, Neil,
you're really into tech. How soon do you think that
(17:29):
people will not be able to tell at all who
is real and who is not.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I think they have models currently that are at that place.
We just haven't seen them yet. It's moving so quickly
and they have kind of parsing out how we get it,
and we're seeing it, you know, slowly. But they said
that they asked the same questions with animation. Once computer
animation came into the field, the question was would it
(17:58):
be real enough? Could you strike emotions? And the first
transition of that I think was probably Jurassic Park when
they went with the digital dinosaurs dinosaurs instead of stop
motion like raping Friehausen.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Anyway, the folks that sag after are going completely nuts
as well as they should, because these digital figures are
as you say, they're going to be real We did
a segment on this show where I was not here.
(18:37):
It was a digital rendition of my voice. It was
pretty good, but you could tell that it was not perfect.
But these programs learn and if we kept on going
with that, it would get better and better. And keep
in mind, we have over thirty years of my voice,
(18:58):
my inflection, my views, I mean everything. If you've been
listening at all, you know how I talk, you know
my inflection, you know how depraved I am, you know
how bad my puns are. AI is going to be
able to produce me where they don't have to pay me.
It'll just be a figure in a.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Computer once they can figure out how to do you know,
simple malaprops or spit when they talk or chew.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
You're out of a.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Job, yeah, I mean, we're all out of jobs. I
think the first one to go is Amy with the
News only Amy, because you do the news and you
don't put a lot of emotion. You don't put a
lot of you in there in terms of your views
of the world. Because you do news and.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
I also have a little show called wake Up Call.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, but you're interviewing people. Okay, let me put it
this way. You're right during wake up call. Well, let
me throw upthing at you. A guest that the producer
creates and has a topic, let's talk about weather, right,
weather changes in weather, climate change, and then just throws
it into AI. There's Amy asking about that question, and
(20:19):
there is the AI weather person answering that question, even
talking about what's going on right now. Well, maybe you're done.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
It's not going to happen for now because we're guaranteed
human Yeah promos on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Well, yeah, by contract. But when does AI become a contract?
So anyway, you're finished. First, You're welcome. Kono is finished
real first, Yeah, probably.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Cono physical touch AI.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, oh, I'm sorry. AI can't control a board. You're
absolutely right. They can't AI control me. That's my entire
point when it comes to Will. AI not only can
do everything that Will does, but it doesn't care. You
don't know, I know AI. Okay. We end the show
(21:07):
with a story about California wolves. California wolves, they were
almost extinct. Matter of fact, I think they weren't in
California for years and years, and it used to be
back in the day. I'm talking about the early days
wolf pelts. You would sell it a wolf pelt and
get a lot of money because they were attacking sheeps
and chickens and cows. Well, guess what they're doing. They're
(21:29):
attacking cows. And now you've got farmers, cattle farmers are saying, Nope,
we can't do this anymore. Well, researchers that you see
Davis found that cattle DNA in seventy two percent of
wolf scat samples as wolf crap, and mule deer, which
(21:54):
is the natural prey in California, in forty five percent
of samples versus seventy two percent. Wow. Well, wolves are
becoming more dependent on cattle. Why because it's much easier
to feed on slow moving, fatty cows. Then go after
the dwindling deer population because mule deers move at a
(22:16):
pretty good clip cows don't. And so wolves are back
and they're actually starting to euthanize wolves, and the environmentalists
are going completely crazy. And also keep in mind, I'd
love to see a study how many environmentalists are vegans,
and I'll bet you there's a whole lot of them.
(22:38):
They hate cows. And by the way, this study doesn't
show this, but it is a real problem. So the
gray wolves are back. They're eating your steak, and they're
back to wolf pelts are going to be sold for
a lot of money. All right, we're done. That's it.
Amy comes back and will comes back tomorrow with a
(23:02):
wake up call, which is probably not going to be
very long until AI kicks in. Neil and I join
at six to nine Cono, whose job definitely is going
to be replaced by Ai and probably will be the
last man standing in choosing topics. The rest of us
not so much. So stay tuned because we're not going
(23:26):
to be here very long. I just want to let
you know. No, Gary and Shannon also to be replaced.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
What.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
No, that's Andy Reesemeyer right there. I can tell by
the hair. No one has hair like that. He's like
a young Conan O'Brien.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Oh I know Andy.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I thought I.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Thought it was weird because Ann normally sits there and
Andy doesn't look anything like Ann. No, just on the weekends.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, he's a lot of fun, expensive but fun but fun.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah. Okay, we're done, guys, Gary and Shannon up next
tomorrow morning. We do this all over again. Kfi am
six point. You've been listening to the Bill handle show.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six fortyfi AM six forty Bill Handle on a Monday morning,
July the thirteenth. Some of the stories we're looking at
the Cold War in Iran. Well, it's heating up. The
(00:21):
ceasefire seems to be ceasing, and the fire seems to
be increasing. Senator miss McConnell, Well, we have a picture
of him. He is looking a little worse for wear,
but it seems like he's going to be okay. He
had a fall and a concussion, but didn't have any
(00:41):
lasting injuries. And Lindsey Graham, Senator Lizzie Graham, one of
the most well known senators, has died. Now I'm going
to throw something at you which I have said before
and we've talked about it. The billionaire exodus from California. Yeah,
money leaving California, businesses leaving California. Regulation way too high,
(01:10):
taxes way too high, very difficult place to do business. Okay,
how about this. It's pulled in more than three hundred
and thirty five billion dollars in venture capital last year,
New York ten times less worth ten times more than
(01:32):
New York. How is that possible? Nearly eight billion dollars
and invested across two hundred and seven deals, led by
space and defense firms. But ninety percent of the new
money is chasing AI giants anthropic open AI, leaving non
(01:53):
startups AI startups smaller funds. They just don't have enough.
That's really what it's about. Are these AI companies, even
startups that have attracted so much money, unpreceded pile of
capital coming in. Why is that? Is it true that
(02:14):
we are over regulated, overtax You bet it is. But
the deep pool of talent, rich investors, tech infrastructure that
turns it around makes it ground zero for the AI
intelligence explosion. La San Diego, La, including Orange County, has
(02:35):
just an incredibly strong tech market and the infrastructure that's needed,
and a campaign for new tax billionaires have convinced some
ultra rich residents to shift other states. Texas does a
lot of that you have? Florida does a lot of that?
You have? Ohio? Come to Ohio, Come to Texas well.
(02:56):
The reality is, even though we have high property, high
energy costs, anti business regime, you know what, it's that
top talent and it's only here for the most part.
In California, now as rotten as everything is. The state's
economy grew five percent last year. That's huge, to a
(03:19):
record four point twenty five trillion dollars. We are number
four in the world economy the California it's it's a
monetary policy and revenue and income four point two five
trillion dollars more than every other country other than the US,
(03:44):
China and Germany, home to nearly four hundred billion dollar startups.
It's the go to address for space and defense tech companies.
I mean, it is just crazy. Three months that end
in June, California companies raised over one hundred billion dollars
in venture capital. Three companies Anthropic Project Prometheus, which is
(04:10):
Jeff Bezos Anderill Industries picked up seventy five percent of
that amount. Anthropic alone raised sixty five billion dollars, which
values the company at nearly a trillion dollars. Which none
of these companies it makes sense with evaluation, none of them.
And there is a big issue as to with the
(04:32):
amount of money being thrown and invested in AI by
the hundreds of billions of dollars, does it pay well?
These companies and investors are playing the long game on
this one. This is not going to be your traditional
businesses to you have a year of burning money and
(04:53):
then all of a sudden it starts turning a profit.
LA Southern California ranked only to Silicon Valley and New
York actually, but New York's way way down. Bobby Franklin,
president of the National Venture Capital Association industry group, says
investment activity is actually picking up. Fundraising is improving. Early
(05:19):
signs that the IPO market is coming up. Early signs,
but it seems to be right now. AI well, AI
in aerospace, defense companies also are up. You have industrial parts, software, consulting,
life sciences, other sectors in Southern California attracted venture money,
(05:43):
but as I said, nearly ninety percent went to AI
firms ninety percent. Last year it was sixty five percent.
And according to Stanford University in a study, if you're
a tech company and you're not an AI company, it's
going to be very, very difficult to raise money. Smaller
(06:08):
middle of the road venture funds without large AI holdings
are just struggling to get the money, struggling to get
venture capital. And you can't build a company, particularly a
tech company, without venture capital. It just doesn't exist. It's
actually hard to build any company that grows rapidly without
venture capital. You just need it. You need it for infrastructure,
(06:30):
you need it for marketing, you need it for R
and D. Okay, Now, of course we've all been to
Costco and we all know what Costco is about in
a big way. Not only the great prices, of course,
the membership cup club where you pay money to become
a member. One hundred and forty five million people are members,
(06:53):
and this is just straight money in their pockets. So
how does Costco sell more than any other food purveyor
out there? Not only the samples I mean, excuse me,
not only the discounts you get because of the way
they produce their retailing model a big box store. No
(07:17):
displays other than there's your one product up there and
then the price. Nope, here's how it works. It's mojo
and that is samples, the free samples virtually everything in
the food part of the store. And people love free food.
(07:37):
Costco loves free food. Why is that because Costco makes
a fortune from free food. Now, you would think that
free food those samples would increase sales a little bit.
They are astronomical sales. And the people. I love the
people that give the samples. First of all, it's all
(07:58):
ages now, and now they have old people that are
about to die, which they didn't have before. They have
people that don't speak a word of English. That is
fairly new. And it runs all the way from people
who just don't care. I mean, they're just there putting
the samples up to carnival barkers who are really into it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Chicken nuggets, Get your chicken nuggets here, free sample of
chicken nuggets.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So why does it work so much? And this has
become legion in terms of their influencers. There are people
that go around every day a couple things about Costco
that are horrible about the samples at my Costco. It's
the Korean ladies that will literally push you out of
(08:46):
the way and tackle you. And then you have the
long lines people just waiting for those samples to come
out of that little toaster oven. And sometimes there are
seven or eight people, sometimes there's ten people. And you
come back and you run out and you come back
and we're gonna be ready in ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Neil is a Costco aficionado and has studied Costco. So Costco, well,
you know, chicken nuggets are a big deal, Burritos are
a big deal. People line up to those. Those little
energy drinks and health drinks. Nobody lines up for those. Nobody.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
You're right the vast majority of the time, you don't
when Max was small that we would try like baby
stuff or things like that snacks for him.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
But think about it this way.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I'm gonna guess with my wife and me, probably six
or seven out of ten times, if we try something
hot or warm and we like it, we.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Buy It's that's the entire issue.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Something about getting it warm. You're probably they're a little hungry.
You're gnauching while you're shopping, and I think it keeps
people mosing around. They put them in different locations. It's
just nothing better than sampling something and going, I really
like that.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
I'm going to bring that home.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
A couple things. Costco when it gave up our Hebrew
National hot dogs, when they give up their chiros, it
was the end of the world for a lot of us.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I don't see those choices personally, I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Oh my god, they were fabulous. Also, one of the
big issues in which Costco shoppers are devastated is the
sample stopped during COVID. Oh my god, the human.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Er how much they lost during that period.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
It just was of that. Yeah, here's what studies actually,
their studies about this handouts thrill shoppers keep coming back
for more. And as you said, something when you taste it,
and I've done this by it. But here's what normally
happens is I've thrown away Costco food, which is hard
(11:05):
to believe, and that is I'll take a sample of
something and it tastes pretty good, so I will buy it,
and when it gets home, I go ahead and heat
it up, prepare it, and it just doesn't taste as good.
It just doesn't work for me. The samples, there are
something about samples that put it on another level when people.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
Buy for you because they're free. Yeah, that's true, you
taste the free yep. Also with Costco, it's not just
goosing sales. Free samples are actually driving more annual fees.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
They did a study. Annual fees go up when they
do samples because they compared when the samples go down,
annual membership go down. And also you know that first
impression that tastes good, Well, sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't.
Now Costco itself doesn't do it. Demonstration people don't work
(12:12):
for Costco who do this. One of the companies is
Club Demonstration services that hire people, and if you look
at them, I think the people that are hired are
either special needs, unintelligible in terms of language, so old
that they're falling apart. That tends to be the people
(12:35):
who do the sampling certainly not. And you know what,
even though it costs, well, it really doesn't cost because
the amount of money that Costco makes by having those
free samples, and it brings out the worst of pizza
people too, especially with things like pizza rolls. Seems like
(13:00):
it's all you can eat buffet. A few names for
these people that go around Costco and literally for hours.
Then I'll do that free samples here, I'll go back
three four times for the same sample. And I'm embarrassed
to do that, so I turned my shirt inside out.
I will sneak up and they don't care.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
You know, these people don't with the story mustache.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, and I'm not alone. You know what they call
what Costco people call these people locusts, jackals, zombies, trash
pandas I like that vultures. Costco samples. It's a world
onto itself. Okay, Now, Tillie Norwood is an actress sort of,
(13:53):
this is a I in a very interesting way. She
is or it's going to be the star of a movie.
And filmmakers and audiences have first of all asked who
deserves the credit for it? And what is she? Well,
she's certainly a character, but she's an AI generated character.
(14:16):
And boy, that's changed everything around about acting artistry. Now
you know what the word actor means. It's you know,
actors or actors, and they're people. Well, Tilly Norwood is not.
She's basically or it's basically codes and pixels. And last
(14:37):
week's an announcement that Tilly would star in this feature
film called Misaligned sparked once again the debate about AI's
impact on Hollywood jobs and something even more basic, What
is Tilly? Is it a she? Is it?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Or her?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Is it an it? And you have a reader's comments
on the Times came in a me One urged journalists
to stop writing about this thing like it's a person.
Another said, how is this not just an animated film?
A third objected, She's not an AI actor, she's an
AI software program. Now a quick word. No one's ever
(15:16):
confused Woody from Toy Story right with the voice of
Tom Hanks. The characters themselves are well in this case, characters,
not animated characters. Do they deserve acting awards? And till
he is testing whether these assumptions are holding? Is this
(15:39):
a performance? The gal who started this, a woman who
started this, Elaine vander Velden Right, Elaine vanderveld got her
start she was a filmmaker, moved into AI and she says,
I understand the fear. I had the same fear when
AI first came out. Now, this movie is set in
(16:00):
the Tilly Verse. It's a coming of age drama. The
feature follows Tilly, who is an Aianity. So it's about
an Aianity with no lived experience of its own that
gradually develops desires, ambitions, shame as it learns to be human.
So it's about the very question of what Tilly is.
(16:22):
But how about when Tilly becomes a superhero or becomes
someone in the hospital who is dying, who becomes any
performance out there transforms himself or herself without the technology
that is used from real actor to some kind of
(16:45):
a monster. This is someone who is one hundred percent
not a person now right now? Well, the technology is
saying people have to deal with this, people have to create.
But what's AI going to do? AI is going to
(17:06):
expand on Tilly? Now? Real emotions? Here is the issue.
Can an AI generated character really produce real emotions as
far as looking like a person? Man, sometimes you can't tell, Neil,
you're really into tech. How soon do you think that
(17:29):
people will not be able to tell at all who
is real and who is not.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I think they have models currently that are at that place.
We just haven't seen them yet. It's moving so quickly
and they have kind of parsing out how we get it,
and we're seeing it, you know, slowly. But they said
that they asked the same questions with animation. Once computer
animation came into the field, the question was would it
(17:58):
be real enough? Could you strike emotions? And the first
transition of that I think was probably Jurassic Park when
they went with the digital dinosaurs dinosaurs instead of stop
motion like raping Friehausen.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Anyway, the folks that sag after are going completely nuts
as well as they should, because these digital figures are
as you say, they're going to be real We did
a segment on this show where I was not here.
(18:37):
It was a digital rendition of my voice. It was
pretty good, but you could tell that it was not perfect.
But these programs learn and if we kept on going
with that, it would get better and better. And keep
in mind, we have over thirty years of my voice,
(18:58):
my inflection, my views, I mean everything. If you've been
listening at all, you know how I talk, you know
my inflection, you know how depraved I am, you know
how bad my puns are. AI is going to be
able to produce me where they don't have to pay me.
It'll just be a figure in a.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Computer once they can figure out how to do you know,
simple malaprops or spit when they talk or chew.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
You're out of a.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Job, yeah, I mean, we're all out of jobs. I
think the first one to go is Amy with the
News only Amy, because you do the news and you
don't put a lot of emotion. You don't put a
lot of you in there in terms of your views
of the world. Because you do news and.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
I also have a little show called wake Up Call.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yeah, but you're interviewing people. Okay, let me put it
this way. You're right during wake up call. Well, let
me throw upthing at you. A guest that the producer
creates and has a topic, let's talk about weather, right,
weather changes in weather, climate change, and then just throws
it into AI. There's Amy asking about that question, and
(20:19):
there is the AI weather person answering that question, even
talking about what's going on right now. Well, maybe you're done.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
It's not going to happen for now because we're guaranteed
human Yeah promos on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Well, yeah, by contract. But when does AI become a contract?
So anyway, you're finished. First, You're welcome. Kono is finished
real first, Yeah, probably.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Cono physical touch AI.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, oh, I'm sorry. AI can't control a board. You're
absolutely right. They can't AI control me. That's my entire
point when it comes to Will. AI not only can
do everything that Will does, but it doesn't care. You
don't know, I know AI. Okay. We end the show
(21:07):
with a story about California wolves. California wolves, they were
almost extinct. Matter of fact, I think they weren't in
California for years and years, and it used to be
back in the day. I'm talking about the early days
wolf pelts. You would sell it a wolf pelt and
get a lot of money because they were attacking sheeps
and chickens and cows. Well, guess what they're doing. They're
(21:29):
attacking cows. And now you've got farmers, cattle farmers are saying, Nope,
we can't do this anymore. Well, researchers that you see
Davis found that cattle DNA in seventy two percent of
wolf scat samples as wolf crap, and mule deer, which
(21:54):
is the natural prey in California, in forty five percent
of samples versus seventy two percent. Wow. Well, wolves are
becoming more dependent on cattle. Why because it's much easier
to feed on slow moving, fatty cows. Then go after
the dwindling deer population because mule deers move at a
(22:16):
pretty good clip cows don't. And so wolves are back
and they're actually starting to euthanize wolves, and the environmentalists
are going completely crazy. And also keep in mind, I'd
love to see a study how many environmentalists are vegans,
and I'll bet you there's a whole lot of them.
(22:38):
They hate cows. And by the way, this study doesn't
show this, but it is a real problem. So the
gray wolves are back. They're eating your steak, and they're
back to wolf pelts are going to be sold for
a lot of money. All right, we're done. That's it.
Amy comes back and will comes back tomorrow with a
(23:02):
wake up call, which is probably not going to be
very long until AI kicks in. Neil and I join
at six to nine Cono, whose job definitely is going
to be replaced by Ai and probably will be the
last man standing in choosing topics. The rest of us
not so much. So stay tuned because we're not going
(23:26):
to be here very long. I just want to let
you know. No, Gary and Shannon also to be replaced.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
What.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
No, that's Andy Reesemeyer right there. I can tell by
the hair. No one has hair like that. He's like
a young Conan O'Brien.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Oh I know Andy.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I thought I.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Thought it was weird because Ann normally sits there and
Andy doesn't look anything like Ann. No, just on the weekends.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, he's a lot of fun, expensive but fun but fun.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah. Okay, we're done, guys, Gary and Shannon up next
tomorrow morning. We do this all over again. Kfi am
six point. You've been listening to the Bill handle show.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
The Bill Handel Show News
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