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: I can't wait to talk to our tech guy, Rich DeMuro,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: because he was at Zoomtopia. I didn't even know Zoomtopia
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: existed until I just read about it from Rich DeMuro,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: but I'm fascinated by it. And I'll tell you why,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: but let me just tell you, Rich on Tech is
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: heard Sunday nights from 8 to 11 on WOR. You
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: can also reach out to Rich yourself at Rich on
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Tech on Instagram. So Zoomtopia, I guess, is a conference
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: they have for Zoom, right? But this one apparently is
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: about AI. And here's the question I want you to answer, Rich.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And you might have got this from Zoomtopia. Can I
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: get an AI version of myself to pretend I'm at
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: these Zoom meetings so that I don't have to attend them?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Larry. Yeah, so here's the deal.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: So number one, Zoomtopia, I went because the irony was
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: not lost on me that this company that does virtual
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: meetings has this big in-person conference. And I said, okay,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I have to go to that and see what it's
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: all about. So yeah, they announced a whole bunch of features.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: And the first thing that the onstage, the CEO of
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Zoom came out, and the first question the presenter asked them,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: she said, why didn't you send your virtual avatar? Isn't
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: that much easier than being here in person? And he said, well,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: it's much cheaper for me to be here in person
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: because a virtual avatar costs money. So the answer to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: your question is, yes, you can have a custom avatar,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: go to your Zoom meetings, I'm looking at the Zoom
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: website right now. It's $ 16. 50 a month for the first
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: four months, and then it's $ 22 a month. But here's
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: the thing. They announced all kinds of new features for
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Zoom at this event. One of them, and this didn't
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: even occur to me, is basically a deep fake detection.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So it can detect if someone in your meeting is fake,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: is not a real person. I mean, this is where
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: we are in 2026.
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  Speaker 3: They ruin everything.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: That would have been wonderful to have an avatar. Think
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: All the bad.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Zoom meetings you've been on.
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  Speaker 5: And how many guys' careers could have been saved when
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: they were on the Zoom during the lockdown and pandemic
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: when they were found with their pants off and they
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: were stimulating themselves?
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: You remember that, Rich?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Oh, do I remember that? I mean, I was asking
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: the Zoom folks, like, this brand got their name from
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the pandemic, right? Like, everyone in the world uses Zoom.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I think what they're trying to do now is like
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: move past that idea of like, oh, when I do
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: a video call, it's Zoom.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: No, they want to be everything.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, at this event, they had all kinds of
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: new features that they showed off, including this one's wild.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: It touches up your look. Okay, we know we can
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: do that on Zoom. But now they've got one that
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: touches up your voice. So if you have a heavy accent,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: you can actually toggle a switch and it will smooth
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: out your accent, which to me is wild. There's one
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: called Pose Correction. So Larry, if you're looking at your
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: notes down on your paper next to your screen, it
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: will actually make it look as if you're still looking
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: at your camera and engaging with people. So yeah, you
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: can pretty much check out of your meetings and still
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: look like you're engaged at this point.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: And only $ 16 a month?
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: Larry's looking into the budget right now.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: You know, remember Rich, Larry, and Natalie when Ariana Huffington
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: was like the go-to guest for years, you know, with
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: Huffington Post? I can never understand what the hell that
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: woman was talking about because of her accent. So this
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: would have made her more understandable?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: One click.
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  Speaker 3: One click.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And I asked Zoom.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: I said, look, I go.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: did you think this was a little controversial to put
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: in a feature that, you know, smooths out an accent?
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: And they said, no, this is optional. You turn it on.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: You don't turn it on for other people. You turn
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: it on for yourself. And they're saying, look, if it
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: makes it easier to communicate with people worldwide, there you go.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, they also introduced features that like live translate.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I mean, just so much stuff. But to me, the
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: thing that really stuck with me is they want you
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: to do everything through Zoom and it kind of records
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: and makes notes about every single conversation you have. So
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: then you can kind of go in and ask questions
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: later about anything that you've ever mentioned in a meeting,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: which is kind of smart.
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: Now, Rich, my household, like so many now in America,
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: is the bane to cable and network programming because my wife, Nancy,
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: the millennial, cut the cord.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: So what I do is I depend on.
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: My stream because the smartphone knows pretty much now what
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: I want to look at. And I mean, it floods
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: me with the cuts, the cuts. But AI has gotten
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: so good. No, it's not SI. AI has gotten so good.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: I can no longer tell what's a fugazi fake and
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: what's real. Shouldn't there be something on that feed that
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: says this is AI generated?
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: You know, look, there are tools on both sides. Like
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: if you scroll through Instagram or Facebook, if you look
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: real close up at the top by the person's name
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  Speaker 2: that posted it, it will say AI content. If you
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: go on X or Twitter, whatever they're calling it these days,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: it'll say AI generated in some aspects. So they are
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: looking for flags inside images and videos when people upload
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: them to show people that, hey, look, this was made
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  Speaker 2: with AI. The problem is there are equally a whole
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: bunch of tools online that can remove those signals in
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: about five seconds. And so you can upload your image
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: or video that was created with AI and and it
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: will wipe out that watermark on the back end. These
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: are things that you can't see with the human eye,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: but computer systems look for. But there are lots of
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: websites that just remove those watermarks off the file. So
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: it's a cat and mouse game. At the end of
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: the day, I think you just have to use your
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: sense and understand that, like, is this too good to
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: be true?
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Is this real?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: There's a photo of Taylor Swift going around this week
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: of her pregnant, and I almost sent it to my wife.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I was like, hold on, let me fact check this
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: for one second before I send this. And sure enough,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: it was like, nope, totally fake.
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, the pictures are almost undetectable with the videos that
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: are made by AI. The big tell on them, and
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: you tell me if you've seen this too, the big
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: tell on them are the voices. They're almost too clear.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Yes. And there's this scam going around on YouTube and
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: other social media networks where basically People email me all
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: the time saying, hey, Rich, I want to buy an AirTag,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: but I don't want to pay that much, so I
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: found this random AirTag brand, and here's a video about it.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: And I watch the video, and these people, they upload
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: AI-created videos with a reviewer that's like, hi, I am
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: reviewing the new AirTag 3000, and.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: It is excellent.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, this is fake. And there's like a
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: hundred of those videos. They just flood the web with
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: it so that, you know, these systems find them, take
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: them down and more go up.
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: Now, Rich, most Americans like me just want simpler tech.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: What can be done to achieve that? Because it seems
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: it's getting more and more complicated.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, I agree.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: And imagine my life where I'm testing 10,000 gadgets a day.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: So it is very complicated in my home. There's just
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of stuff that I'm like either testing
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: or just finishing testing or getting ready to set up
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: the next thing. but they did a poll quad in
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: the Harris poll. 75% of Americans want a simpler relationship
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: with technology and they feel like that's an upgrade, not
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: a sacrifice. And so I think what happens is people
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: like the idea of going off social media for a
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: little bit. So you don't have to do it every day.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Maybe take a Sunday, take a couple hours of the day,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: just leave your phone at home, make sure your loved
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: ones can get in touch with you. Or if you're
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: with them, that's when I find you can really disconnect.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: When I'm with my wife and two kids, And, you know,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: I know everything's good in the world.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: Well, that's debatable. But you know what I mean? They're
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: all there.
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  Speaker 2: And I can say, okay, let's leave the phone behind
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: for a couple minutes and just be engaged here.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: It'll make you feel better. I appreciate that, Rich DeMuro.
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: It's Rich on Tech, heard every Sunday night from 8
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: to 11 here on the number one talk station in
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: New York, 710WOR.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Appreciate that once again. We'll be with you same time,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: same place.