Latest / The Financial Exchange Show / Meta’s AI Rally and the Big Questions Facing OpenAI

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Meta’s AI Rally and the Big Questions Facing OpenAI · The Financial Exchange Show

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Speaker 1: is the Financial Exchange with Mike Armstrong and Paul Lane.
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Speaker 2: Good morning. Welcome back to the Financial Exchange.
1:14
Speaker 3: We've got some thrilling news in markets with the S
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Speaker 3: & P 500 currently up two points or 0.03%. NASDAQ's
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Speaker 3: up 105, four-tenths of a percent. Dow Jones Industrial Average
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Speaker 3: is down 218 points, four-tenths of a percent. It's Mike, Paul,
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Speaker 3: and Tucker with you here on a Tuesday after a
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Speaker 3: pretty big rally day yesterday, making up for some lost
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Speaker 3: ground at the end of last week on some, I
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Speaker 3: don't know, diesel interest rate and AI slowdown concerns that
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Speaker 3: seem like, I said it at the time, the idea
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Speaker 3: that Some sense of duty and altruism from major AI
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Speaker 3: leaders is going to be what causes the tech market
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Speaker 3: to slow down. Seemed very unlikely to me at the time.
2:07
Speaker 3: Anything's possible, but I'm guessing if it comes from anywhere,
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Speaker 3: it's going to come from some other reason for the
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Speaker 3: bubble popping rather than concern for the well-being of the
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Speaker 3: human race.
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Speaker 2: So we will see.
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Speaker 3: That story is not fully written yet, but That was
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Speaker 3: the narrative dominating last week was, hey, these companies are
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Speaker 3: going to get together and slow things down intentionally.
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Speaker 2: I kind of doubt it would be my take.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, corporate greed is probably going to win out.
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Speaker 3: I would think so, yeah. I would imagine we'll get
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Speaker 3: more of the same. Hey, this may lead to the
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Speaker 3: end of humanity as we know it.
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Speaker 4: We have an IPO coming up.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, we have an IPO coming up, and we really
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Speaker 3: believe that we are the right shepherds to lead us
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Speaker 3: into this end of the universe, is what I keep
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Speaker 3: hearing from tech leaders. If we don't do it, some
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Speaker 3: other guy's going to do it, so it might as
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Speaker 3: well be us that ruins the world.
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Speaker 4: The W you know versus the W you don't or something.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a real compelling argument.
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Speaker 3: MAG7 roaring back yesterday. Meta stock rallied some 11% yesterday.
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Speaker 3: Did you guys see, I saw an ad for the Meta, glasses.
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Speaker 3: That was the first time ever that I didn't feel
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Speaker 3: that it was just designed for creeps that want.
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Speaker 2: To record people.
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Speaker 5: I didn't see the ad.
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Speaker 3: No, it was, I think during football games, probably, um,
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Speaker 3: they are donating, uh, one set of these Ray-Ban meta
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Speaker 3: glasses to every, uh, I think blind veteran out there.
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Speaker 3: And the example that they showed was this guy, you know,
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Speaker 3: who suffered from, I don't know what degree of blindness,
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Speaker 3: but wearing the glasses, uh, And then prompting the glasses
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Speaker 3: to say, hey, which one is the blue shirt? And
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Speaker 3: then prompting the glasses to say, you know, read this,
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Speaker 3: I don't know, read this sign to me. And, you know,
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Speaker 3: the idea of, hey, gaining your independence back from blindness
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Speaker 3: by wearing these glasses. I'm guessing that he was vision
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Speaker 3: impaired and not fully blind. But in any case, it
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Speaker 3: was the first time I've seen a commercial for these
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Speaker 3: where I said, wow, That is not a terrible use
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Speaker 3: case of these that I feel disgusted with because more
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Speaker 3: and more what I'm seeing is people recording other people
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Speaker 3: in public and those people being unaware of it and
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Speaker 3: kind of being forced into awkward situations by creepy people
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Speaker 3: wearing these glasses.
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Speaker 2: Which I think is the majority use case. But this
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Speaker 2: would be an interesting side effect case.
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Speaker 6: For these big tech leaders out there, this is the
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Speaker 6: biggest focus that you have to create a better narrative around,
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Speaker 6: whether it be AI or glasses, but most specifically AI,
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Speaker 6: because that is the whole, that is everything. You need
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Speaker 6: to be able, from a marketing messaging position standpoint, come
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Speaker 6: out with stories as to things that they can do,
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Speaker 6: artificial intelligence that it can do to help greater society.
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Speaker 6: And this is a great example of it. And I
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Speaker 6: applaud Meta for taking a step to doing something that
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Speaker 6: actually will benefit some people in need out there. On
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Speaker 6: the AI front with Muse, this is the reason why
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Speaker 6: Meta had rallied so much. Muse is the agent AI
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Speaker 6: that Facebook has released that basically would enable people to
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Speaker 6: be able to I would say, delegate tasks such as
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Speaker 6: booking travel or organizing their inbox or creating a grocery
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Speaker 6: store list from a specific recipe that you may be
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Speaker 6: looking to cook for dinner. These are the early stages
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Speaker 6: of trying to generate a consumer AI product. Right now,
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Speaker 6: all of the inroads that these major labs have made
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Speaker 6: have been more on the enterprise side of things, helping
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Speaker 6: out businesses. But this is the first one that would
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Speaker 6: potentially be additive to the end consumer. Some good download numbers,
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Speaker 6: but ultimately I haven't used it myself. We'll have to
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Speaker 6: see kind of what the feedback is and what amount
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Speaker 6: of time or productivity that it enables.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, the question that I have about it is, where
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Speaker 3: does this fit in your business model meta?
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Speaker 4: It's a diverse side revenue outside ads.
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Speaker 3: It's the same question that I have for your metaverse.
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Speaker 3: Why am I going to go use this?
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Speaker 2: You know, like.
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Speaker 3: it's not going to be to boast about the trip
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Speaker 3: that I'm taking. It's not going to be to share
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Speaker 3: family photos. Um, are you going to actually design something
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Speaker 3: that integrates into your platforms and makes it so that
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Speaker 3: logically I would use this or do I need to
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Speaker 3: take a leap of faith that, Hey, I'm downloading this
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Speaker 3: new Facebook product from a company that frankly, I don't
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Speaker 3: really trust all that much. Uh, and how is it
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Speaker 3: going to, you know, play out better than any of
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Speaker 3: the other AI products out there.
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Speaker 2: I guess.
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Speaker 6: If I'm Facebook, my argument to you would be diversify
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Speaker 6: revenue outside of just advertising, which is basically their only
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Speaker 6: way of, not the only way, but the biggest slice
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Speaker 6: of the pie on the revenue side of things. Get
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Speaker 6: it to a subscription model, or if you don't get
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Speaker 6: the subscription traction that you're looking for on it, you're
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Speaker 6: driving more purchases with the agent doing it for the individual.
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Speaker 6: So you can turn around to the vendor and say,
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Speaker 6: we're driving you all this traffic through our AI agents
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Speaker 6: to buy stuff. Either kick us more in ad revenue
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Speaker 6: or give us a cut of the volume that we're
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Speaker 6: throwing your way. Because when Mike wanted to book a trip,
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Speaker 6: we booked it through X airline or whatever.
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Speaker 3: Well, we'll see if there are any good... I mean, okay,
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Speaker 3: if I had to sit here... And say, who do
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Speaker 3: I think is going to be better at building a
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Speaker 3: tool that allows me to book travel and design vacations?
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Speaker 4: Basically be my assistant, right?
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Speaker 2: Be my personal assistant. Google or Facebook, where would your
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Speaker 2: bet be?
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Speaker 5: Google.
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Speaker 2: I'd bet on Google.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: They're booking flights for me today. Mm-hmm.
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Speaker 3: They have every restaurant review that matters in the entire system,
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Speaker 3: pretty much.
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Speaker 2: They're fully intertwined in your world.
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Speaker 6: Could you probably have a Gmail address with them?
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Speaker 3: So if I had to bet on one versus the
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Speaker 3: other success, I would lean more on that one on
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Speaker 3: that front. And it's not as though they're not pretty
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Speaker 3: far along on developing their own generative AI agent through Gemini.
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Speaker 2: So we'll see.
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Speaker 3: That's the answer with all this stuff. I don't know
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Speaker 3: where it's going to be successful, where it's not, but
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Speaker 3: we will see. A stock boom is fueling a retirement party,
8:22
Speaker 3: economists say. Yeah, I think I see it.
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Speaker 1: I see.
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Speaker 3: I had a conversation just yesterday with a woman who
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Speaker 3: was planning on working until 70 until she chatted with
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Speaker 3: a friend of hers who said, hey, you know, you're
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Speaker 3: going to have grandkids next year.
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Speaker 2: Like, have you checked to see if you could pull
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Speaker 2: this off?
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Speaker 3: And prompted a whole conversation about maybe retiring three years
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Speaker 3: early at 67 years old instead of 70, but retiring
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Speaker 3: earlier to be able to spend more time with family.
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Speaker 3: I see this conversation being brought up every single day.
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Speaker 4: I do too.
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Speaker 6: Obviously, we're entrenched in it because it is our job
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Speaker 6: and we're dealing with a lot of people who are
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Speaker 6: on the precipice of that decision. But the one thing
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Speaker 6: that I'm at least cautioning those retirees is we are
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Speaker 6: looking at a portfolio that has performed brilliantly very well
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Speaker 6: over the last three or four years if you have
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Speaker 6: significant stock exposure. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.
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Speaker 2: Every disclosure you've ever seen from an investment company.
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Speaker 6: So you're looking at your portfolio at a very great time.
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Speaker 6: Hopefully that continues to be the case, but just keep
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Speaker 6: that in mind that the markets have fared really well.
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Speaker 4: Over the last three or four years.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt about it.
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Speaker 3: And I think we're seeing this have pretty interesting effects
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Speaker 3: on the labor market. Obviously, you can't test out how
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Speaker 3: many baby boomers would be retiring without the tremendous.
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Speaker 2: Performance in the stock market over the last.
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Speaker 3: Three years and really the last 15 years. There's no
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Speaker 3: way to get at that counter.
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Speaker 2: Narrative story here. But very obviously, the.
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Speaker 3: Combination of baby boomers retiring and fewer immigrants into the U.S.
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Speaker 3: plus deportations is having a tightness effect on the labor market.
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Speaker 3: To what degree would be happening without the stock market boom?
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Speaker 3: An open question, but I think we're definitely seeing it.
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Speaker 3: Speaking of which, we're going to take a quick break,
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Speaker 3: but we're going to be joined right after this by
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Speaker 3: Corey Adams from Robert Half.
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Speaker 2: He's talking to us.
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Speaker 3: About Gen Z in the workplace and perhaps some of
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Speaker 3: the effects of that tight labor market on that generation
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Speaker 3: of workers.
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Speaker 2: That's next on The Financial Exchange.
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Speaker 3: Joining us now is Corey Adams from Robert Half talking
11:34
Speaker 3: to us about their Gen Z in the Workplace survey.
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Speaker 2: Corey, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
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Speaker 4: Morning, Mike.
11:39
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me, as always.
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Speaker 3: So we just got done actually talking about, you know,
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Speaker 3: baby boomers retiring. We're obviously also seeing some effect on
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Speaker 3: the labor market from deportations as well as fewer immigrants
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Speaker 3: entering the United States in 2026. By all accounts, 2025
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Speaker 3: was a pretty weak labor market. we've seen signs of
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Speaker 3: improvement here. And at the same time, we are seeing,
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Speaker 3: according to your survey, over half of Gen Z workers
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Speaker 3: planning to look for a new job by year end.
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Speaker 3: Are we just in a booming labor market right now?
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Speaker 3: What is your take on the results of this survey?
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Speaker 8: So, well, first off, let's just talk about who the
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Speaker 8: Gen Z population actually is, because people might not actually know.
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Speaker 8: So This is the group that was born between 1997
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Speaker 8: and 2012, ages 14 to 29. So obviously only the
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Speaker 8: latter half of that age range actually is in the
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Speaker 8: workforce today. And this is literally the youngest workers that
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Speaker 8: we have working in our economy in this exact moment.
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Speaker 8: And so this is the digital group. That's what they're
12:44
Speaker 8: known for. Actually, the codename is the Zoomers. And so
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Speaker 8: this group, according to our surveys, you just said plan
12:51
Speaker 8: to look for new jobs.
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Speaker 5: Also up from 32% a year ago.
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Speaker 2: So for many- That's the interesting piece here.
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Speaker 3: It's not that half, it's that only a third of
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Speaker 3: them were planning to look last year.
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Speaker 5: Correct.
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Speaker 8: Well, we got to remember that for many of them,
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Speaker 8: not all, but for the majority, this is probably their
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Speaker 8: first job.
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Speaker 5: This is sort of the first foray into the actual,
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Speaker 5: to the workplace.
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Speaker 8: And so 53% of the Gen Zers actually believe that
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Speaker 8: changing employers could actually offer greater salary to than if
13:18
Speaker 8: they stayed where they are.
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Speaker 5: And so that's a big number.
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Speaker 8: And so the top three reasons why the Gen Zers
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Speaker 8: actually said that they want to look for a new
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Speaker 8: job was that they said they wanted better benefits and perks,
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Speaker 8: they wanted better career advancement opportunities, and that's a big one.
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Speaker 5: And they also feel underpaid based off of their skill set.
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Speaker 8: But they also said the top three challenges that they
13:35
Speaker 8: were finding was that they couldn't find a role that
13:38
Speaker 8: aligned with their preferences. They said that the hiring process
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Speaker 8: was too slow or lengthy, and that there was a
13:43
Speaker 8: higher competition for roles due to more applications tailored by
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Speaker 8: And then the last thing I'll just share with you, too,
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Speaker 8: is that 87% of our respondents from Gen Z actually
13:54
Speaker 8: said that they use AI for professional purposes, but about
13:57
Speaker 8: a quarter of them actually said integrating it into their
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Speaker 8: daily work has led to burnout.
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Speaker 3: Obviously, I don't think Gen Z is alone in figuring
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Speaker 3: out that job hopping can be associated with pretty big
14:11
Speaker 3: pay increases. At the same time, I do know of
14:15
Speaker 3: hiring managers who are not excited to see a 28-year-old
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Speaker 3: with four different jobs. How do you navigate that balance,
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Speaker 3: I guess, of proving out that you're willing to stay
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Speaker 3: in a role, but also taking advantage of the benefit
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Speaker 3: to changing jobs, to getting a bigger pay increase and
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Speaker 3: better benefits elsewhere?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a really good question, Mike.
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Speaker 8: So This generation tends to view job changing a little
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Speaker 8: bit more positively than some of their previous generations because
14:44
Speaker 8: they believe that they can accelerate their pay. They believe
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Speaker 8: they can develop and gain new skills. And again, they're
14:49
Speaker 8: really focused on career advancement. And so, listen, there certainly
14:52
Speaker 8: can be benefits.
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Speaker 5: To changing jobs.
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Speaker 8: Moving to a new employer may mean higher pay, broader responsibilities,
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Speaker 8: exposure to new technologies, or again, a faster path forward.
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Speaker 5: To growing your career.
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Speaker 8: But at the same time, staying put also has some
15:06
Speaker 8: significant advantages that are sometimes.
15:08
Speaker 5: Harder to quantify.
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Speaker 8: And whether that be a stronger manager or supportive work culture,
15:13
Speaker 8: internal mobility opportunities, or clear development path, these are all really,
15:18
Speaker 8: really valuable and why you may want to stay within
15:20
Speaker 8: an organization. But we've said this before, professionals should evaluate
15:24
Speaker 8: the full picture and not just focus on compensation because
15:27
Speaker 8: to really what you're asking is frequent moves over a
15:30
Speaker 8: short period of time can in fact raise some questions
15:33
Speaker 8: for future employers. So hiring managers want to be able
15:35
Speaker 8: to understand whether a candidate is committed to actually seeing
15:38
Speaker 8: something through. And they also want to, you know, I
15:42
Speaker 8: guess this is really, really important. The key is to
15:45
Speaker 8: be able to clearly be able to articulate each singular
15:49
Speaker 8: career move. So changes that demonstrate increasing responsibilities, new skills,
15:54
Speaker 8: or intentional career progression tend to be viewed way more
15:57
Speaker 8: favorably than a pattern of unexplained moves. And so the
16:00
Speaker 8: goal shouldn't just be job hopping for the sake of
16:03
Speaker 8: job hopping. The goal should be to be making thoughtful
16:05
Speaker 8: career decisions that support long-term professional growth.
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Speaker 2: All right. You've mentioned it a couple of times, Corey.
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Speaker 3: How is AI really influencing Gen Zs and their career
16:15
Speaker 3: decisions these days?
16:16
Speaker 2: What can employers be doing?
16:17
Speaker 3: What are Gen Z already doing in the workforce now?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, so this is interesting.
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Speaker 8: Again, I'm going to remind everybody, this is our digital generation.
16:26
Speaker 8: And so this group views AI proficiency as an important
16:30
Speaker 8: career skill, and they're actively looking for opportunities to build experience.
16:33
Speaker 5: With AI tools.
16:34
Speaker 8: And so employers that provide an AI training, guidance, and
16:37
Speaker 8: opportunities to use emerging technologies are probably going to have
16:40
Speaker 8: an advantage in attracting younger talent right now.
16:43
Speaker 5: They just will.
16:43
Speaker 8: So at the same time, what's happening is that some
16:46
Speaker 8: workers are evaluating how employers are basically integrating.
16:50
Speaker 5: AI AI into their organization.
16:52
Speaker 8: And so they want tools to help them work more effectively,
16:55
Speaker 8: but not expectations that technology will simply allow them to
16:58
Speaker 8: do more with less. And so expectations around productivity and
17:02
Speaker 8: keeping skills current have actually contributed to what we're now seeing,
17:06
Speaker 8: as I said before, to workplace burnout. And so the
17:09
Speaker 8: primary reasons for this, and there was three, and I
17:11
Speaker 8: thought they were pretty important, is that this group, as
17:14
Speaker 8: a result of AI, feels a pressure to be more
17:17
Speaker 8: productive and which employers don't mind hearing. They also have
17:21
Speaker 8: fears over job security if they don't adopt these new tools.
17:24
Speaker 8: And then they said that they're overwhelmed around this constant
17:27
Speaker 8: feeling of having to just continuously learn all these new requirements.
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Speaker 3: Corey Adams from Robert Half joining us today to talk
17:34
Speaker 3: about their latest survey on Gen Z in the workplace
17:37
Speaker 3: and that anticipation or that wish.
17:41
Speaker 2: To move up the career ladder. Corey, thanks so much
17:44
Speaker 2: for joining us. Appreciate it. We'll talk to you again soon.
17:46
Speaker 2: Thank you. Have a great week. Yeah, I find that
17:49
Speaker 2: one interesting, Paul. I don't know that that's a Gen
17:52
Speaker 2: Z thing.
17:54
Speaker 3: I really do feel like this labor market has hit
17:57
Speaker 3: a bit of a turning point. It's not what we
17:59
Speaker 3: were seeing in 2022 or 2023. I'm not trying to
18:03
Speaker 3: paint that scenario here. But the average pace of job
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Speaker 3: creation for 2025, I think, was between 10,000 and 30,000
18:07
Speaker 3: jobs a month.
18:08
Speaker 2: We're roughly.
18:16
Speaker 3: Double or triple the high end of that estimate in
18:19
Speaker 3: 2026 so far. And while I'm not seeing that real
18:24
Speaker 3: robust hiring spree.
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Speaker 2: Going on right now across all sectors.
18:27
Speaker 3: In the economy, we are just seeing robust demand simply
18:31
Speaker 3: because baby boomers are retiring and there are not enough
18:35
Speaker 3: foreign-born workers to do the labor they once did. And
18:37
Speaker 3: so it seems like a relatively tight labor market again.
18:41
Speaker 4: No, it's interesting.
18:42
Speaker 6: I was reading a piece the other day where the
18:44
Speaker 6: 50-year average on unemployment is 5.7%. Like 401. That struck
18:50
Speaker 6: me so much, taking that 50-year average and then realizing
18:54
Speaker 6: the difference where we are today versus that average. It
18:59
Speaker 6: still is a very strong labor market. I think we've
19:01
Speaker 6: been spoiled by the trough of the 3.5% that we
19:05
Speaker 6: saw in that 2022 period and that it's important to
19:08
Speaker 6: at least kind of keep that context, that sub-5% It's
19:12
Speaker 6: very good historically. And you can argue maybe the labor
19:15
Speaker 6: market shifted, and that's not a good number to use anymore.
19:18
Speaker 4: But still, it's pretty good.
19:19
Speaker 3: It's pretty modern history. It's 1970s to now. That's pretty
19:22
Speaker 3: recent history for an average. Let's take a quick break.
19:25
Speaker 3: When we come back, full market update with Wall Street
19:28
Speaker 3: Watches next.
19:39
Speaker 1: Bringing the latest financial news straight to your radio every day.
19:44
Speaker 1: It's the Financial Exchange on the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
19:50
Speaker 1: For Wall Street Watch, tracking the stocks, the data, and
19:54
Speaker 1: the headlines driving markets so far today, right here on
19:57
Speaker 1: the Financial Exchange Radio Network.
19:59
Speaker 7: After yesterday's AI rally, markets today are mixed with oil
20:03
Speaker 7: continuing to pull back. Bond reports that Iran suggested it
20:07
Speaker 7: could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if
20:10
Speaker 7: the U.S. eases military pressure and lifts its blockade. Right now,
20:14
Speaker 7: the Dow is down 0.6% or 305 points off S
20:16
Speaker 7: & P 500 today. Dipping by only three points, NASDAQ
20:22
Speaker 7: up about a third of a percent or 91 points higher.
20:25
Speaker 7: Russell 2000 is up four-tenths of one percent. Ten-year treasury
20:28
Speaker 7: level is flat at 4.97 percent. Crude oil down about
20:32
Speaker 7: a third of a percent, trading at $ 95 a barrel,
20:35
Speaker 7: while Brent is down about half a percent, trading at $ 99.
20:39
Speaker 7: After its 11% leap yesterday, Meta shares are up another
20:42
Speaker 7: 1% today. Monday's jump was driven by Meta's new AI
20:47
Speaker 7: agent Muse notching the top spot in Apple's App Store.
20:51
Speaker 7: Speaking of Meta, Shopify is partnering with the Facebook and
20:54
Speaker 7: Instagram parent company with plans to allow its Muse AI
20:58
Speaker 7: agent to complete purchases on behalf of users. With the
21:02
Speaker 7: e-commerce platform's roster of stores, Shopify is up by 7%. Elsewhere,
21:08
Speaker 7: Alibaba unveiled its most powerful chip yet, doubling down on
21:11
Speaker 7: its bid to control the software and hardware power of
21:14
Speaker 7: its AI ambitions. Alibaba shares are rising about 1%, and
21:20
Speaker 7: Swiss sneaker maker On Holding is rallying 11% after delivering
21:25
Speaker 7: encouraging financial targets at its investor day.
21:29
Speaker 4: I'm Tucker Silva, and that is Wall Street Watch.
21:32
Speaker 3: Technical problems grounded flights at major East Coast airports yesterday.
21:36
Speaker 3: They finally did resume Monday evening, but this was after
21:39
Speaker 3: a radio communication system in Philly and its backup both failed.
21:45
Speaker 3: Once again, questions being asked of the FAA as to
21:49
Speaker 3: what on earth they're going to do to modernize the
21:52
Speaker 3: systems that we use to service some of the busiest
21:54
Speaker 3: airports in the world. But by yesterday evening, LaGuardia, Kennedy, Philly, Newark, Teterboro,
22:02
Speaker 3: they'd all resumed operations but were down for a pretty
22:06
Speaker 3: substantial period and all of them experiencing major delays as
22:12
Speaker 3: they had to work out these seemingly technological issues from
22:16
Speaker 3: what I can tell.
22:17
Speaker 6: Really hard day for airline workers because you had people
22:20
Speaker 6: screaming for hotel vouchers for their missed flights, but it
22:22
Speaker 6: wasn't the airlines issue. This was, you know, equipment malfunction.
22:27
Speaker 6: So a very hard spot to be in where you
22:31
Speaker 6: don't shoot the messenger for the FAA's technology, which I
22:35
Speaker 6: could not believe, Mike, we covered a story earlier, I
22:39
Speaker 6: forget when, this year, how archaic the technology is. So
22:46
Speaker 6: much so that it can't be hacked, I believe, but
22:50
Speaker 6: it also doesn't appear to.
22:53
Speaker 4: Run all the time.
22:54
Speaker 3: Also the equivalent of a rotary phone, so that's the
22:57
Speaker 3: other problem. The good news for the airlines is that
23:00
Speaker 3: our trains suck so much that there really is no alternative.
23:04
Speaker 3: I was taking a look just you know, if I
23:06
Speaker 3: wanted to go from Boston to Philly on the Amtrak train,
23:10
Speaker 3: there is an Acela. It'll get you there in close
23:12
Speaker 3: to six hours with seven stops between here and Philly.
23:16
Speaker 3: And you just look at that. By the way, I
23:18
Speaker 3: was looking at like a similar distance in Germany, you know,
23:20
Speaker 3: similar train. You're there in like four hours. So, you know,
23:24
Speaker 3: an extra at least one hour to do it here
23:26
Speaker 3: in the States. More expensive than flying.
23:30
Speaker 2: Really?
23:31
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. The trains are always so much more expensive.
23:34
Speaker 3: I think, If I'm going Boston to New York, I
23:36
Speaker 3: will gladly take that.
23:37
Speaker 4: I like that ride.
23:38
Speaker 3: It's an enjoyable ride, and I don't want to go
23:41
Speaker 3: wait at the airport for an extra hour and a
23:42
Speaker 3: half on each end of my trip and deal with that,
23:44
Speaker 3: and you're going right to Manhattan. But if you're talking
23:47
Speaker 3: about going... And by the way, this is the best
23:51
Speaker 3: rail system in the country. The Northeast Corridor is the
23:54
Speaker 3: most efficient, best rail system that we have in the
23:57
Speaker 3: entire country, and compared to.
24:01
Speaker 3: Other developed nations, it's kind of hot garbage. And compared
24:03
Speaker 3: to flying, it's definitely hot garbage. So, yeah, not really
24:07
Speaker 3: a great alternative. Folks, I want to talk to you
24:10
Speaker 3: about the last major informational event that we have from
24:13
Speaker 3: the Armstrong Advisory Group for 2026. It's out in Enfield, Connecticut,
24:17
Speaker 3: next Thursday, October 1st, 5 p.m. We're putting on the
24:22
Speaker 3: last segment of our Social Security and Medicare Essentials Seminar.
24:26
Speaker 3: It's free to attend, but space is limited. We'll be
24:29
Speaker 3: diving into all the ins and outs of these two programs.
24:32
Speaker 3: A lot of things have changed over the course of
24:33
Speaker 3: the last decade. And we put it on because these
24:36
Speaker 3: are easily the most commonly asked questions we get. I
24:39
Speaker 3: had one just yesterday from somebody.
24:42
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm divorced. We were married 15 years.
24:46
Speaker 3: I'm this age. Ex-husband is that age. When can I
24:48
Speaker 3: select Social Security? Does it matter to wait? I worked
24:52
Speaker 3: for the state of Massachusetts, so I'm getting a pension.
24:54
Speaker 3: How does that affect it? We'll cover all of these
24:57
Speaker 3: items and more. at our event on Thursday, October 1st.
25:01
Speaker 3: Like I said, it's at the Fairfield by Marriott, Inn
25:04
Speaker 3: & Suites in Enfield, Connecticut. Free to attend, but space
25:07
Speaker 3: is limited and registration is required. You can register by
25:11
Speaker 3: going to armstrongadvisory.com. Click the events button on the top
25:15
Speaker 3: toolbar and register right there. If you have questions, you
25:18
Speaker 3: can call us at 800-393-4001. But once again, Thursday, October 1st,
25:24
Speaker 3: all you need to know about Social Security and Medicare essentials.
25:27
Speaker 2: Uh, Enfield, Connecticut, 5 p.m., armstrongadvisory.com.
25:32
Speaker 1: The proceeding was paid for by Armstrong Advisory Group, a
25:34
Speaker 1: registered investment advisor. Nothing in the ad or in any
25:37
Speaker 1: Armstrong guide is specific financial, legal, or tax advice. Consult
25:40
Speaker 1: your own financial, tax, and estate planning advisors before making
25:43
Speaker 1: any investment decisions. Armstrong may contact you to offer investment
25:46
Speaker 1: advisory services.
25:47
Speaker 3: New York Times claims that Wall Street's growing skeptical of
25:50
Speaker 3: the data center boom. They backed this up with some
25:53
Speaker 3: delayed IPOs. including one called SB Energy, which is a
25:58
Speaker 3: conglomerate backed by SoftBank and a few others that are delaying.
26:01
Speaker 3: We obviously had OpenAI delay their IPO. Anthropic, we don't know.
26:06
Speaker 3: They've registered documents to go public, but we haven't gotten
26:09
Speaker 3: the final details yet. I got to say, I don't
26:13
Speaker 3: see a ton of evidence of some skeptics on the
26:16
Speaker 3: data center boom.
26:17
Speaker 2: I do hear.
26:19
Speaker 3: More and more states are imposing limits on the construction
26:23
Speaker 3: of these data centers, or at least limits on the
26:24
Speaker 3: tax breaks that they would get. But from the markets,
26:28
Speaker 3: I really don't see that hesitance. I agree that they
26:32
Speaker 3: could use a big messaging turnaround. We're in this similar moment.
26:37
Speaker 3: Remember 2015? or maybe it was like 2014 when we
26:41
Speaker 3: were seeing the massive oil price boom and all that
26:43
Speaker 3: activity in the Dakotas and everywhere else. And we're seeing
26:47
Speaker 3: some of that because of data centers. You just mentioned
26:49
Speaker 3: your friend that works in Milwaukee from Boston for construction needs,
26:54
Speaker 3: and we're seeing some of that. But I don't think
26:55
Speaker 3: these companies are doing a good job of explaining that
26:58
Speaker 3: to the American public, some of the upsides of this construction.
27:02
Speaker 3: And the threats to the companies, I think, are growing, right?
27:05
Speaker 3: We have this New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI and
27:08
Speaker 3: others for pretty blatantly skirting all of their, uh, protections
27:13
Speaker 3: for intellectual property and training their models on the protected
27:17
Speaker 3: content of the New York times, as well as admissions
27:20
Speaker 3: from insiders at open AI at the time that this
27:22
Speaker 3: is like a huge theft. Uh, the other one that
27:25
Speaker 3: I find very disturbing, but fascinating is this case of
27:29
Speaker 3: the mass shooting in Canada.
27:31
Speaker 2: You've probably read about it. It was back.
27:34
Speaker 3: In February of this year, the Tumblr Ridge mass shooting, um,
27:39
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of details we don't yet know.
27:44
Speaker 3: There was an 18-year-old who killed eight people, including six children.
27:48
Speaker 3: British Columbia has now filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in
27:52
Speaker 3: the state of California. They chose California because here's what
27:55
Speaker 3: seemingly happened. The shooter was talking to ChatGPT. And the
28:02
Speaker 3: communications were flagged by OpenAI's safety team for references to
28:06
Speaker 3: gun violence. And then the company looked at it and
28:10
Speaker 3: did nothing. They didn't report it to authorities. They did
28:14
Speaker 3: not do really anything that you would expect somebody to
28:17
Speaker 3: do if somebody's communicating about mass shooting.
28:20
Speaker 2: And gun violence.
28:22
Speaker 3: Sam Altman later apologized for not alerting law enforcement. But
28:25
Speaker 3: this is what they are suing them for is, hey,
28:28
Speaker 3: you had this internal review and you chose not to
28:31
Speaker 3: flag it to police. We want to know why. So
28:34
Speaker 3: they filed lawsuit. The families have filed lawsuit against the company.
28:38
Speaker 3: And here's the question. So we talk about these tech
28:41
Speaker 3: companies frequently and we talk about that protection that all
28:44
Speaker 3: of them have from section one 30, which is all about,
28:48
Speaker 3: it's all about publishing versus communication on a website. And
28:51
Speaker 3: so one thing that I feel fairly comfortable in my
28:53
Speaker 3: understanding of all this is if this person had been
28:57
Speaker 3: communicating with somebody on Facebook in the comments section about
29:01
Speaker 3: a mass shooting, we would all find it deplorable and
29:03
Speaker 3: hope that Facebook would report it and advertisers might drop
29:07
Speaker 3: if they didn't.
29:08
Speaker 2: But Facebook couldn't be charged for that communication.
29:12
Speaker 3: Does that same rule set apply when OpenAI created this
29:18
Speaker 3: machine that.
29:20
Speaker 2: Talked to somebody about mass shootings? Again, I don't know.
29:24
Speaker 2: what the communication was.
29:26
Speaker 3: I doubt it was encouraging him to do it, but
29:29
Speaker 3: was it telling him how to get away with it?
29:31
Speaker 3: Was it, you know, was it breaking the law in
29:34
Speaker 3: some meaningful way or was it just acting in a
29:36
Speaker 3: way that we all find deplorable? Um, it, This is
29:40
Speaker 3: a really interesting liability that I'm not sure I fully
29:44
Speaker 3: understand if these companies are liable for it, but I
29:47
Speaker 3: sure would hope that if you develop a product that
29:51
Speaker 3: does then communicate with somebody about a mass shooting, that
29:56
Speaker 3: you have some legal responsibility there.
29:59
Speaker 2: I guess we'll find out.
30:01
Speaker 3: But that is what's seemingly playing out in this court
30:04
Speaker 3: case and why the province of British Columbia has filed
30:07
Speaker 3: suit against OpenAI in the state of California. Again, disturbing
30:12
Speaker 3: but fascinating stuff that needs to be worked out.
30:14
Speaker 2: Quick break. We'll be right back with some Stack Roulette.
30:17
Speaker 1: Smart financial talk whenever you want. Find the Financial Exchange
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30:24
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30:27
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30:39
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30:49
Speaker 2: Time for some Stack Roulette. What do you have for us, Paul?
30:52
Speaker 6: This one, I think, I know you were going to
30:54
Speaker 6: go with this one, so let's talk about it first.
30:57
Speaker 6: This is about pay-to-play for youth sports. This is something
31:01
Speaker 6: that is near and dear to, I'm sure, your heart, Mike,
31:05
Speaker 6: because you're right in the throes of it. I'm just
31:07
Speaker 6: kind of starting the journey on the youth sports train
31:10
Speaker 6: and still just at the the local level. But I
31:12
Speaker 6: was talking with my father-in-law over the weekend, and my
31:16
Speaker 6: nephew plays club hockey and is only in, I believe,
31:20
Speaker 6: second grade. And the cost for the season, four grand.
31:25
Speaker 6: And these numbers, I'm sure to listeners out there that
31:28
Speaker 6: have grandkids that play, or if there are listeners who
31:31
Speaker 6: are parents that have kids that play, are staggering to
31:34
Speaker 6: me jumping into this world that now an extra after-school
31:38
Speaker 6: activity is is.
31:40
Speaker 4: Costing $ 4, 000 or $ 5, 000.
31:41
Speaker 6: I'm sure you were not surprised by that at all.
31:45
Speaker 2: The travel program for my town is $ 2, 000.
31:48
Speaker 3: There's a number of reasons.
31:51
Speaker 2: It's cheaper.
31:52
Speaker 3: They don't go to as many tournaments. They don't practice
31:54
Speaker 3: quite as much. But it is astronomical, these prices these days.
31:59
Speaker 3: I do have a problem with the... I don't like
32:04
Speaker 3: the state of youth sports, but I don't think it's coercion.
32:09
Speaker 3: I think is where I grow. That's what Bloomberg's calling it.
32:11
Speaker 3: Youth sports stay-to-play is coercion by another name. So the
32:15
Speaker 3: cost of the season is very exorbitant. What they're talking
32:18
Speaker 3: about on this stay-to-play idea is specific to tournaments.
32:24
Speaker 2: So I've experienced this firsthand.
32:27
Speaker 3: You sign your team up for a tournament, and it
32:29
Speaker 3: says there right at the bottom, this is a stay-to-play tournament.
32:32
Speaker 2: You will be sent a hotel booking link.
32:35
Speaker 3: What it practically means is that the tournament, in addition
32:37
Speaker 3: to charging you whatever it's going to cost, the one
32:40
Speaker 3: that I just registered my team for was $ 1, 500, you
32:45
Speaker 3: also must stay at one of the designated hotels for
32:49
Speaker 3: the tournament.
32:49
Speaker 2: Okay.
32:50
Speaker 3: The tournament then gets a kickback from that hotel for
32:53
Speaker 3: bringing in the business. For bringing the volume of rooms.
32:55
Speaker 3: And in addition, in some cases, according to the reports,
32:58
Speaker 3: the cost of that hotel through that booking site is
33:01
Speaker 3: pretty substantially more expensive than you can get just by
33:03
Speaker 3: going to Expedia. or directly to the hotel website. And
33:06
Speaker 3: people are rightfully frustrated by that. Does anyone consider, I
33:13
Speaker 3: think you could maybe say, hey, this might be false advertising.
33:17
Speaker 3: It might be misleading if it's not disclosed to people
33:20
Speaker 3: when they're signing up for the tournament. It might be
33:22
Speaker 3: a breach of contract if they are not properly disclosing
33:24
Speaker 3: all of it. I don't think that I can jump
33:27
Speaker 3: to it's some form of coercion. I don't, To my knowledge,
33:32
Speaker 3: I don't think any teams are required to play in
33:34
Speaker 3: hockey or basketball or football tournaments in order to be
33:37
Speaker 3: youth hockey players. I also seemingly see a fair bit
33:42
Speaker 3: of competition in the space for youth hockey tournaments. Let's
33:50
Speaker 3: just focus on hockey for a moment because that's the
33:52
Speaker 3: only world I know and you brought it up. I
33:56
Speaker 3: can think of off the top of my head probably
33:58
Speaker 3: 20 different club teams that that a child could try
34:02
Speaker 3: out for and choose to play for every town in
34:06
Speaker 3: Massachusetts or nearly every town in Massachusetts has their own
34:09
Speaker 3: youth hockey program that kids can choose to participate in.
34:12
Speaker 3: So I don't really see where we're getting with all this.
34:17
Speaker 3: Do I find the.
34:18
Speaker 2: Pay to play?
34:19
Speaker 3: Uh, you must book the hotel through our site in
34:21
Speaker 3: order to play in the tournament to be annoying.
34:24
Speaker 2: Yes.
34:26
Speaker 3: Is it any different in my mind from the, Hey,
34:30
Speaker 3: you know, You have to buy, I don't know, go
34:35
Speaker 3: on a flight. Can I bring my own alcohol?
34:38
Speaker 2: No. That's kind of part of the deal. You can't
34:43
Speaker 2: do that. You go to the theme park, right?
34:45
Speaker 3: Am I allowed to bring my own bagged lunch to places?
34:49
Speaker 4: Movies, bringing popcorn. People may do it, but you're not
34:51
Speaker 4: supposed to.
34:51
Speaker 2: I don't know. It doesn't really seem all that bad
34:54
Speaker 2: to me.
34:54
Speaker 6: How much supply of tournaments are there? When you pick
34:56
Speaker 6: this tournament, how does that go, the process about which
34:59
Speaker 6: one that you pick? Are there other options?
35:02
Speaker 2: Great question. So....
35:06
Speaker 3: My kids participate in girls' youth hockey, which is immensely
35:10
Speaker 3: smaller than co-ed or boys' youth hockey, obviously. I gave
35:14
Speaker 3: my team's parents six different tournament options to choose from.
35:18
Speaker 3: There is plenty of availability. I think they were run
35:21
Speaker 3: by four different organizations, these tournaments. There is not some
35:24
Speaker 3: limitation of choice. Some of them had state of play.
35:28
Speaker 3: Others did not.
35:29
Speaker 4: Okay, that's what I was getting at.
35:30
Speaker 2: It was not universal.
35:31
Speaker 4: So there is choice in the market.
35:32
Speaker 2: There was choice in the marketplace.
35:34
Speaker 7: Yep.
35:35
Speaker 3: And I just don't see this as a big problem,
35:38
Speaker 3: especially here in the Northeast. I do certainly feel for
35:41
Speaker 3: my nephew who lives in Maryland and has to, you know,
35:47
Speaker 3: there is no town hockey program. The kid's driving like
35:50
Speaker 3: an hour and a half to each practice, and there's
35:52
Speaker 3: six tournaments that year for the club program that are,
35:55
Speaker 3: you know, five hours plus a drive time away. Like,
35:59
Speaker 3: do I feel like that's a, you know, crappy problem
36:02
Speaker 3: to have?
36:03
Speaker 2: Yes, but again... It's happening because you're choosing to play
36:05
Speaker 2: hockey in Maryland. It's the deal.
36:08
Speaker 3: Same goes for my nephew that plays hockey in Denver. Like, yeah,
36:11
Speaker 3: you have to go to Las Vegas for tournaments. That's
36:14
Speaker 3: just kind of how it works. But is that, I
36:18
Speaker 3: always have to ask myself, is this a problem worthy
36:21
Speaker 3: of legislation?
36:24
Speaker 2: And my answer is definitely not.
36:26
Speaker 6: No, I do just wish that the public options, like
36:29
Speaker 6: just for town hockey or whatever sport, we'd go back
36:33
Speaker 6: to that framework where it used to be that the
36:35
Speaker 6: club thing was more of a one-off, that certain players
36:38
Speaker 6: might participate in it, but you could still get a
36:40
Speaker 6: very good experience playing in the town program.
36:42
Speaker 3: Well, there are positives and negatives there too, Paul. So
36:45
Speaker 3: when I was a kid growing up, yes, you generally
36:48
Speaker 3: had much smaller club options, and the arguably elite players
36:53
Speaker 3: would do that, and the non-elite players would not.
36:55
Speaker 7: Yep.
36:59
Speaker 3: It's a lot more inclusive today. If you want to
37:02
Speaker 3: go play club for some team.
37:03
Speaker 4: And expensive, though.
37:04
Speaker 2: Very expensive.
37:05
Speaker 6: They open it up so that the lousy kids could
37:07
Speaker 6: still play club just because they're willing to cash the check.
37:09
Speaker 2: Because they're willing to cash the check.
37:10
Speaker 4: I mean, that's business. That's capitalism as we know it.
37:13
Speaker 2: I know.
37:14
Speaker 6: Just for you sports, why not just keep those players
37:18
Speaker 6: who aren't in the elite spectrum of things like it's
37:21
Speaker 6: about the experience and the memories, right? Like for all
37:23
Speaker 6: of us, basically 99.9% of us.
37:26
Speaker 4: It's about that.
37:27
Speaker 6: So why do we need to cash $ 4, 000 checks?
37:30
Speaker 3: That's, that's the point that I make to people all
37:31
Speaker 3: the time is yeah. The optionality now is huge. You know,
37:34
Speaker 3: each of those clubs has a, B and C programs.
37:36
Speaker 3: They will cash your check all day.
37:38
Speaker 7: Right.
37:39
Speaker 2: Um, Doesn't mean your kid's going anywhere.
37:43
Speaker 3: Might mean that they have more swag from their whatever,
37:47
Speaker 3: Junior Eagles, Terriers, yada, yada, yada program.
37:51
Speaker 2: But that's the nature of it.
37:53
Speaker 3: People realized they would be able to cash the checks,
37:56
Speaker 3: and so they dramatically expanded the availability of it.
37:58
Speaker 4: So I've got to buckle up to write them eventually.
38:00
Speaker 2: That's right.
38:02
Speaker 3: We've got to take a quick break until tomorrow at
38:05
Speaker 3: about 10 a.m., so tune back in tomorrow.
38:09
Speaker 2: Have a great rest of your day, folks, and we'll
38:10
Speaker 2: be back then.