Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / Rich DeMuro, host of ‘Rich on Tech’ on WOR Sundays Interview

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Rich DeMuro, host of ‘Rich on Tech’ on WOR Sundays Interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right on time, Rich DeMuro. Rich on Tech has heard
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Sunday nights from 8 to 11 right here on WOR.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And I noticed that you were missing in action there, Rich.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: You were not part of that massive summit about AI
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: hosted by the president at the White House yesterday. When
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: they walked outside, it looked to me like a hostage photo.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: The president was saying, oh, we all agreed you're going
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to self-police and we're no longer referring to it as
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: artificial intelligence. But superintelligence? They didn't seem like they were
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: all in agreement to that. Or were they?
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  Speaker 2: Well, probably not. But, you know, we've seen this before. Apple,
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  Speaker 2: when they came out with AI, they don't call it AI.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: It is Apple intelligence. So there is some... This has
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: been done before. Let's put it that way. And so superintelligence,
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  Speaker 2: Apple intelligence, artificial intelligence. It's all the same. It's making
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: our lives easier, but also more stressful because we're all
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: worried about this stuff in the future. Yeah.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: So did anything really happen at that meeting? I know
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  Speaker 3: that they have some agreement in theory. I'm not sure
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  Speaker 3: anything signed just yet, but is that going to be
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  Speaker 3: enough for what we've been told about the draconian ending
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  Speaker 3: that possibly may be ahead for us?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we'll see. We don't know what the ending of
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  Speaker 2: all this is going to be. But yes, the companies
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  Speaker 2: did sign a voluntary AI accord. We had representatives from Google, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, NVIDIA, XAI,
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  Speaker 2: which is from Elon Musk. Apple, I don't believe, was
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: there this time around. But we do know Apple has
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  Speaker 2: a pretty cozy relationship with the White House. But look,
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  Speaker 2: this agreement is all about letting these companies do what
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  Speaker 2: they do best. but also saying, look, we understand that
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  Speaker 2: there are risks, we understand that there are downsides to this,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: and we need you to be looking out for those.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that this is probably an appropriate way
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  Speaker 2: to do this right now, because no one really knows.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: All the doomsayers, all the doom and gloom, we don't
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  Speaker 2: really know if that's going to happen. We don't know
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: if humanity is going to be wiped off the face
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  Speaker 2: of this planet because of AI. What we do know
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  Speaker 2: is that this is a race, and there are many,
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  Speaker 2: many companies around the world that are all trying to
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  Speaker 2: do this. And just because the U.S. slows down does
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  Speaker 2: not mean anyone else is going to slow down. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: we just saw the financials from Anthropic. I mean, that
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  Speaker 2: company is burning through billions, billions of dollars a year.
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  Speaker 2: And now, to me, it's very clear why these companies,
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  Speaker 2: why Anthropic in particular, wanted to slow down because they
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: want to spend less because they're spending so much and
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: their IPO is coming up and they're saying, look, this
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: company is not as, you know, The financials may not
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: be as good in this business as you think right now.
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  Speaker 2: Same thing happened with Amazon in the early days, and
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  Speaker 2: look what happened to them. So we'll see what comes
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  Speaker 2: of this. But yes, the companies are signing a voluntary
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  Speaker 2: oversight accord where they're saying, look, we're going to keep
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  Speaker 2: track of this, and we're going to figure out ways
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  Speaker 2: of making sure this stuff is safe.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Well, the president with the CEOs of these companies took
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  Speaker 1: it upon himself to say, oh, neighborhoods and communities all
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  Speaker 1: over America, they want... These data filing centers, they really
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  Speaker 1: want them. This will be good for them. This will
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  Speaker 1: make them prosperous. I don't think the president has been
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  Speaker 1: paying attention to what's been going on in the country. Rich,
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  Speaker 1: are you aware of communities that are clamoring to have
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  Speaker 1: data filing artificial intelligence centers in their backyard?
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  Speaker 2: I have not heard of many of those. But, I mean,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: we also saw the same thing. Remember when Amazon wanted
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: to do their headquarters, too, somewhere? And they put up
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: this big thing where they said, okay, you communities compete
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: for this. You pitched to us which place we should
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  Speaker 2: put this in. And nobody wanted it. Nobody wanted Amazon
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  Speaker 2: to be in their backyard because they said, no, it's
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  Speaker 2: probably eventually not good for us. You're going to give
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  Speaker 2: this company all these tax breaks and all this stuff,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: and you're going to promise all these jobs. And at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, it's probably going to be
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  Speaker 2: one big factory with a bunch of robots inside. And
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  Speaker 2: so I think the same thing with data centers. It's
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  Speaker 2: like the promise is there. Oh, we're going to give
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  Speaker 2: you jobs. We're going to give you stimulus to your neighborhood,
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  Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, we're just using
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: your water and your electricity, and what do you get
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  Speaker 2: out of it? So I'm not seeing the neighborhood's clamor
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  Speaker 2: for it, but that doesn't mean we don't need these things.
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  Speaker 2: I think we're going to have to take a different
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  Speaker 2: approach to how we build these data centers.
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  Speaker 3: By the way, before I get to the question, I
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  Speaker 3: want to comment on the dissertation or statement that you
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: made on AI. I thought it was brilliant, and I
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  Speaker 3: agree with you a thousand percent. All right, now a question.
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  Speaker 3: How about this? This is a little bit scary. Your
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: car may be sharing data with big tech. How is
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  Speaker 3: that happening?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, look, we kind of knew everything that's connected
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: to the internet is snitching on us. But yes, your car,
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  Speaker 2: according to Consumer Reports, they did this study with the
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: university and they looked at 15 major automakers and found that, yes,
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  Speaker 2: all of this information that you have in your car,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of it is being shared with data mining companies. Google, Meta, Amazon,
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  Speaker 2: all on the receiving end of this data. And so
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  Speaker 2: some of this data includes your location. It includes your
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  Speaker 2: car's VIN number. And what these companies do, if you're
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  Speaker 2: not familiar with the way these data collection companies work,
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  Speaker 2: even if they have one key piece of your information,
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  Speaker 2: they don't need everything. They need your VIN. And they
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  Speaker 2: will find everything else out about you by pulling all
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  Speaker 2: of the databases that include your information. They can use
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: your email address, your phone number, whatever you do. Like
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: when you go to a store and you give them
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: your phone number for the loyalty rewards program. Oh, no
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  Speaker 2: big deal. It's just my phone number. Well, they take
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  Speaker 2: that phone number and they instantly put it into a
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  Speaker 2: thousand different databases that give them every piece of information
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  Speaker 2: they need to know about you down to what scent
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  Speaker 2: candle that you like. And that's what's happening here. Same
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  Speaker 2: thing with the cars. Bottom line, guys. You've got to
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  Speaker 2: go into your app and try to turn off any
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  Speaker 2: sort of opt-out setting that you can that says share
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  Speaker 2: my data. Turn it all off. You don't need to
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  Speaker 2: help GM or whoever else use your data in all
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  Speaker 2: these ways.
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  Speaker 3: That's great advice. Flock, I hope, Flock doesn't know about
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: this because they're going to want to tap in as well.
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  Speaker 3: Rich DeMuro, Rich on Tech, is heard Sunday nights from
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  Speaker 3: 8 to 11 p.m.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: On WOR.
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  Speaker 3: By the way, you can reach out to Rich and
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: see what he has to say all week long at
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Rich on Tech on Instagram. Thanks a lot, Rich. Have
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: a good week. Thanks, Larry. Thanks, Curtis.