Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: In this episode, we're going to consider whether hidden cameras in Airbnbs and other rentals are really as big of an issue as the chatter online may make it seem. And later on, we'll consider whether humans are beginning to speak more like AI chatbots, as suggested by some recent research.
Hello, welcome to the Car Like I See it podcast. I'm James Keats, and joining me today is a man who, when it comes to podcasting, is always ready to rock. Tunde. Ogonlana Tunde. You ready to get some stuff off your mind today?
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Of course, man. That's why we got a show.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Before we get started. I asked if you enjoy the show, to subscribe and like the show on YouTube or your podcast app. Doing so really helps the show out.
We're recording on January 6, 2026, Antune Day. I know you recently stayed at an Airbnb and you were telling me about all the discussion you saw online and the tips and everything like that about how to check the rental for a hidden camera. And we've all heard reports, you know, as far as hidden cameras being found in the rentals. And Airbnb, I believe in the last couple of years, has updated their policies as far as that. But there's still questions on whether Airbnb sufficiently disincentivizes posts, you know, that if they have those things.
So why do you think we hear so much about this on, you know, on the first hand? Like, is this as big of a problem as the warnings may suggest, or. And, you know, in the fact, like, technology has made it so that privacy, even in a vacation rental, is like a thing of a thing of the past.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: I think that last part is the part that makes this intriguing for all of us, because the idea of privacy.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it all comes down.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: It's like, it's just. It's changed. Right. And I think so.
And it's interesting you bring it up that I did just stay in an Airbnb, I'd say, less than a week ago, for 10 days with my family. So my wife, my kids.
I got step grandkids now with my daughter's wedding, so that's cool. So, yeah, the idea that somebody could be watching all of us go about our regular life is intrusive.
Then obviously, we could think about the things like me and my wife in the bedroom and stuff like that. That even feels even more intrusive.
But like you said as you wound up, we live in a world where the technology has allowed us to get here. And I'll include Airbnb, their existence. Because I thought about it when I was at the Airbnb that without the Internet and this type of technology and algorithms and all that, we couldn't do this. Renting single family homes from people on in another state.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Well, you could, but it's done through kind of a more of an order. Like people would rent like in the 90s and your family would rent a chalet in Tennessee and like, but it's like through travel agencies and it's not, it's a smaller network, tighter wound network than this loose.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Kind of affiliation that somebody can wake up one day and be like, hey, I'm going to rent out my house, you know, or whatever. And I, I want to be specific though, just so that, you know, to say it out loud. The technology piece in particular that I wanted to make sure we hit one. Is that the type of hidden cameras and stuff like that? Like if you watch from the 1970s, like James Bond movies or something like that, like spies, like, they would have these little cameras and you know, like you'd be in the room or something like that. And like that's the kind of, that's, that was how people that stuff trafficked in that type of circles. Like, you're sure the CIA could do this stuff or government, you know, like spies and all that other type of stuff, but now anybody can buy stuff like this and put it up and then be like. And so the accessibility of this type of stuff is so everywhere now. It's like, it's the, the barrier for entry is zero. When it used to be like, hey, are you a spy agency? Then it changes kind of the, it changes the world we walk around in, in a real fundamental way.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I think that's, that's just, it's like everything else. I'm, I'm very aware when I'm in public. Like, let me just. If I drive to a mall to go to a store or something, I assume there's cameras everywhere watching me. And I just, you know, like, I know anytime I go into Home Depot to buy something for, you know, fixing up the house, I just know there's cameras all over Home Depot. There's gonna be cameras in the parking lot, you know, all that stuff. So the idea that surveillance, I think, is not new in my mind, but the idea of privacy in certain areas because I'm old enough that I'm still like an industrial age guy. I still think that if I go to the bathroom or go to the shower or I go to have sex with my wife. I should probably not be filmed. That there should be. There's this, there's this mystique of privacy. And I think that what we all need to just internalize is that the technology, to your point, of what you're saying, allows it so that actors outside of the state, you know, like you said, it used to be just the CIA, FBI, those kind of players, nsa, that could really eavesdrop and collect information in what they called clandestine way.
Now all of us have the ability to go online and buy a camera for probably less than $50 that you can hide in the eye of a teddy bear, or you can hide it in an alarm clock or in a power outlet. So that, that forces someone like me to have to say, okay, well, I need to now assume that it's not just when I go to Home Depot and a strip mall that I'm being filmed. I need to just assume I'm being filmed at all times, period.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Well, and that's, that's the problem, you know, honestly, because now there's a couple of things I want to touch on here. One, just from a legal perspective, and, you know, I'm not speaking necessarily, I'm not giving legal advice, you know, like I'm an attorney, but, you know, the reasonable expectation of privacy is kind of the legal framework for this stuff. Like, are you in a place where you have an expectation, a reasonable expectation of privacy? When you're walking along a street, a public street, you have no expectation of privacy because anybody could be looking at you. So in those type of settings, the law and the kind of cultural practice has become that there can be cameras anywhere. And so, yeah, you go to Home Depot, you wouldn't expect that nobody would be able to see you once you walk out your door. You, you know, from the moment you walk out your door, you would expect people could see you. So in that case, surveillance is considered to be okay. Now, we should keep in mind, though, that that was not something that would, that everybody just embraced and ran into. If you go back a few decades, people complained about that a lot. You know, when they were doing red light cameras first doing that, people were complaining about it. Doing, you know, surveillance in downtown, people complained about it. So this is not something that everybody's just embraced with open arms. But it has happened, you know, like so. And that's actually my concern. And the way you talk and sound so resigned is my concern here also, because it's like, well, hold up, are we, are we on a slippery slope where like now we're going to start sliding into. Even in. Even in a rental space. You're going to be. People are going to just, oh, well, you know, I guess I'm probably being filmed. Like, I hope that we're not going to have this type of resignation for places that we still would expect to be, have privacy in. But then it's like, well, okay, so we can only have privacy in places where we actually control all the electronic devices. But then, I mean, I look at it even from the standpoint, like when I put a, you know, one of these robot vacuums in my house, and they're like, yeah, we got 3D imaging and all this other. I'm like, man, these people are spying on me. You know, these. My robot vacuum is riding around. And then the robot vacuum always likes to go in rooms that you tell it not to go in. And it's like, man. So I think we are on a slippery slope. And that's my concern here, is that when I see this and I'm like, that's standing up. Like, when I'm, When I'm. Are people being paranoid or do we have a right to be like, yo, something is. Is going wrong here? Because this creep of, okay, now, you know, you got it. Like, people buying scanners and like, oh, yeah, this is how you got to scan and then do all this other stuff. Like, I'm not, I'm not a spy. I shouldn't have to just go into some room where I should be private. I shouldn't have to clear the thing. You know, like, that's, That's a lot to me. And, and I am really trying to figure out, you know, on this conversation with you, like, are people being paranoid or are we on this slippery slope of eventually anywhere I go, including in my home or in a rental home or, I mean, hotel rooms, we could talk about that conversation that we had offline. But, you know, you still feel a little safer in the room. But once you step out the room, obviously all bets are off. But you know what's happening here. Like, I would like to have some. Let me jump in and help you.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Because I can see your frustration. So let me calm your nerves here and let you know that this is another one where two things can be true at once. We can be on a slippery slope, and we can also accept that this is happening and all that. And as you're talking, the first thing that comes to mind for me is the Patriot act.
It's been 25 years.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: That's again.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: But I'm just making the point.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: But I'm talking about.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: I'm just making the point that.
Let me just get it out, okay? Because you said that people, for example, were paranoid when we started having red light cameras and that that would be a slippery slope. My point is just saying that I remember the same issues people had with the Patriot act and that is here to stay. And so.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:31] Speaker B: What happens is. And, and, but think about. Here's what I'm gonna say, because I counted as you were talking. I have three cameras positioned near me right now. I've got the camera that's filming me. We got the camera in my cell phone. I've got a camera in my iPad.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: That's three opportunities for some corporations and maybe the government by infiltrating the corporations or getting subpoenas to get visuals of me or anytime during the day randomly.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Not just the government. Anyhow, if those things are connected.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: But think about the one that we're not discussing. But it's part of it. I counted. I have seven microphones in this room right now. I got a microphone on my camera here. I got a microphone that I'm talking into. I got a microphone in my desktop, the screen. Got a microphone on my cell phone and a microphone in my, in my iPad. A microphone is in my iWatch and a microphone is in my flat screen TV across the room right here. So that's seven points of entry. Someone can listen to me.
So between hearing and listening, there's 10 points of entry just in this room, in my house. And that's not encountering the fact I also have a robot, iRobot and other things that, you know, can spy on me.
So that's why I say, as you're talking, I'm thinking we already slipped down.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: We're already there.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Like, yeah, I just, I just rattled off 10 points of entry that someone from outside my house can get and hear or watch me without my knowledge. Like you said, if they can hack me. So we need to assume that's what I mean. How often do I talk randomly to my wife, my kids, to you talking crap and having a good time and not thinking that, man, there's somebody could be listening to me at all times.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: So I just think that what's the tv? Because like, one of the things they talk about with reality TV is that after a few hours, the people that are being filmed forget that the cameras are there. They start acting more normal. And so it's like that's the slippery slope, basically. And I'll say this, you know, I'm not a person that puts a bunch of security cameras around, you know, partially for this reason, but, like, there are people, like, you're on the low end, basically, I would say, for. For a lot of people who would have security cameras all throughout their.
And nanny cams and all this other stuff. And so that's even more places of entry for your own home. But going back just to the rental space, the.
The fact that this is such a discussion now, I. I made the distinction with you earlier, you know, or offline, about how the. When you're talking about a hotel, it's a little different than an Airbnb, and how I historically have had more confidence dealing with a hotel in the sense, because at least there's a. There's someone there who, if something. If something is caught and something is wrong, there's someone there who's on the hook for, you know, like, whereas, you know, when you deal with Airbnb, it's like, was Airbnb responsible? But you probably, when you book, have this contract with them saying, hey, if something goes wrong, you can't sue us. And then you got to, if, okay, I'm going to go after the owner of the house, but who knows if that person. If you can actually sue them and win monies, if they don't have anything to lose or very little to lose, they don't care, you know, if you go after them. So I always wanted to make sure that there was somebody who was properly incentivized to make sure this kind of thing wasn't happening. Invasions of privacy that are illegal because it is illegal, you know, and I went and checked when you started talking about this. It is illegal for people to have hidden cameras in, whether it be a hotel room or an Airbnb rental, inside, in the personal areas, you can have them outside the room or outside the house, you know, surveillance and stuff like that. But inside can't have anything hidden outside. They have to be disclosed, you know, so this brazenly illegal activity that we're saying, hey, we got to all be prepared if we're going to engage in this kind of thing, we got to be doing. It's.
Once we get to a point where, okay, we have to live in this world where security, excuse me, privacy is a flip of a coin, and you're telling me we're already there. But I just don't know if, like, what happened to the fighting people, man? Like, that's like, at least people used to complain, like, where.
All I see is, hey, this is how you check for this how you check for it? Why aren't we lobbying? Is this something that the government can help us with? Is this something that, like, what are we seeing here? Like, did we just give up with a whimper here?
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah, because people don't care. They rather talk about Haitians eating their cats and dogs. I mean, I'm being serious, man. I know it's a funny joke, but. But people don't care. They act like they care. That's what we learned, isn't it, James? Over the last decade, it was all a lie. A lot of things that people said they cared about, they don't really care about. And so this is one of them to me, privacy. Like people say they care about it, but we don't seem to want to push our elected officials to make new laws about that.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Really meant it. Basically.
I was curious. But yeah, I feel very alone at this moment now. But I mean, you're right, I'm the.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Type that accepts it. Yeah, I'm the type that I accept it. I'm not saying I like it, but I just get it. Like, all right, all right. And I think about it like.
And I told you after I came back from this Airbnb, I bought one of those things from Amazon where you can check for hidden cameras and stuff, you know, one of these sensors. Hey man, why not, right? 127 Tune Day I realized that the only place that the next time I go to a hotel or Airbnb do the bedroom and the bathroom. That's it. And because even if someone's spying on me in the living room, I mean I don't plan on having sex in the kitchen, you know, I'm. I'm of the age where that stuff isn't fun to me anymore, you know, And I got a bad back. So the bed is pretty much where I'm getting my action in.
[00:15:03] Speaker A: So.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: I'm not doing any cars and do all these crazy places and I'm nice and middle aged and boring, so. So for me personally it's like, all right, as long as you're not spying. Really. I don't even care about me anymore. I just don't wouldn't want someone disrespecting my wife.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Right?
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Like don't record us in the room or the bedroom or sorry, the bathroom, you know, my wife Sharon or something other than that, if you, if you want to film me making a pancakes for my kids in the morning or something, I don't care, you know, like. But that's. And I'm saying, James, that's more me Giving up. Right? Like, that's more.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that, that's what I hear.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Is everything else in the world. I'm not going to die on that hill. Someone else can fight that battle, but I'll accept that this is happening. So I think, yeah, you're lonely, James. You're the only one.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that you, you have made that clear, man. I'm, I'm all alone. But, you know, I think some of that is. And this is like, you see the people, the quote unquote paranoid people that are up. That are up in arms about it, but everybody else is kind of accepting it. And I think a lot of it is, though, is, is the disconnect that many of us feel from power. And so a lot of people, I think, have, have decided to not worry about this because they don't feel like there's anything they can do about it anyway. It's going to happen. And I think you've kind of even said this, you know, during, like, it's going to. It's happening. So let me just get my head around it. Let me figure out what's important to me and how I'm going to adjust as opposed to trying to take the levers of government or whatever, which we can actually do in our system of government.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Just happens.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we can, but we don't live in a. Well, we haven't traditionally lived in a monarchy where the government just does whatever it wants to do. We actually have the ability to take control of the reins of government and say, hey, these are kinds of things that you can't do. And if you do, you got to go to jail. You out here taping people, hidden cameras and stuff. We're going to send you to jail. That would, that would disincentivize people from doing it sufficiently that I think you wipe out most of it. But if we don't have that kind of thing in place, then, yeah, it's not. You're not going to necessarily have the incentives.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: But that's where, that's where the, just the different messaging and all that. Because if one were to do that in today's world with the power of the tech lobby, then what, you know, if you are.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: All you're doing, though, is explaining to me why it's so insurmountable though. And that's my point, is that people kind of are self censoring themselves from even using the reins of government now because they're like, oh, well, the rich people or the powerful people are going to, they're going to they're going to slump it out.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: I mean, look, that's very true, James. And I think part of it is because people lack the desire to focus on these things. And I agree with you. I don't think that. I think they're big enough where some people can say, hey, this is so big. But we've seen other things in human societies, even in recent periods where people who have. There's big insurmountable odds, but people do coalesce.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yes, it's possible.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: And fight them.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: So.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: So this is one where I just feel like that we have accepted it in society. I don't think it's going anywhere. And I think that the bigger thing will be that we need to adjust, to just accept the fact that this type of privacy has gone away and that we live in a world where everybody can see everything. And maybe that'll end up being for the better, because maybe one of the things that will come out of this will be people that have had lifestyles that may have been on the fringe more so maybe they won't be shunned as much because you're just not gonna be able to hide who you are or what you are.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: I mean, you know, I'll say this, and I want to wrap this up, but I will say this. The. The fact that people voluntarily broadcast so much of their life suggests that we. That maybe I'm just in an old paradigm. You know, like the, The. The. The fact social media itself is. Is about so much, you know, people. And I mean, we're recording a podcast, obviously, I'm not walking around my house, you know, with a camera doing it. But like, the, the. There's so much intimacy that's shared on a routine basis through social media that, yeah, maybe the sensitivity to having privacy has, you know, kind of. It's just. It's something that is. Has gone away, you know, and we're in a place that's. Or we're in a societal place where everything's very connected and there's a lot of openness. And we came from a place where there was a lot of, you know, everybody had their own space and. Or at least, you know, in more recent times. And so. And people were very protective of that space. And so maybe it's a cultural thing that the idea of privacy evolved in, and then now it's kind of evolving out of. As the culture and the norms changed. And so, I mean, I'm going to. I'm not going to be happy about it, and I'm going to actually push against it as long as I'm around. But, I mean, you may be on the right side of the motion on this one, man. I will.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's good, grandpa. You let me know how that fight goes. I'll be here hanging out, watching my. I'll be here, let myself get filmed by everybody.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Bit into that.
You see how I make this pancake.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Hey, hey, man, wait, wait, wait. Hey, wait till you find the, the baby oil in the, in the humidor box. You know, you're gonna learn a lot of new things about me, bro.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Hey, man, wow. For you, it's cooking oil, man. You got a cooking oil in the pancake batter.
But I think we have a second part of this conversation as well, also going into some tech stuff. So join us for that and we'll talk to you soon.
Tunde, for our second part of our discussion, we're looking at this research that suggests people are talking like AI chatbots now. So we recently saw a piece in Gizmodo and that presented some findings that suggested that people, whether it be speeches or just people talking, was starting to resemble chatbot speak. And even so, they're talking about some Reddit forum moderators that were having a harder and harder time distinguishing whether you had bot generated posts that they're trying to remove, or this was just a person who either used a bot to create it or was just sounding like a bot. So tell me, do you buy this theory that humans, in their communication and their verbal communication are starting to sound like AI chatbots sound?
Yes. Okay, so. So what makes you say that?
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Oh, do you want me to talk about it now?
[00:21:09] Speaker A: And hey, man, have a show.
I thought you were ready.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: So.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: No.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: So, yeah, I think, like, that's what I'm saying. Yes, I buy that. That human kind of speech patterns and things for, let's put it this way, people that expose themselves a lot to AI chatbots, that they are behavior, from a speaking perspective in this way of looking at it, would mimic what they're being exposed to from the chatbot. And I think the word mimic there, I think is important because especially I would say not only as humans, as mammals, the type of animal we are through childhood mammals learn a lot through mimicking the older group people in the group.
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: Or animals or whatever. So I think that the idea that we're influenced by the inputs in our surroundings is not a surprise.
The more that I'm learning as I age about all of this is that, yes, we as humans are not static even during our lifetime. We are malleable and we can change.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: I'll tell you this. I think that this is probably the most obvious finding that we'll see in a long time. And here's why. You know, that people say, oftentimes, I'm an attorney by trade, so people say, oh, lawyers start sounding alike, they start talking alike, or you're in the financial services game and you guys will all use certain phrases or certain, you know, like, oh, the way you phrase this or the vocabulary that, you know, you use or that attorneys use, there's this overlap. And because you're reading the same materials, you're having conversations amongst others in the field, and so you guys start sounding alike and attorneys. We start sounding alike, we start using words that only attorneys use. And so to me, it's like, well, yeah, of course, if you're interacting with chatbots a lot and you're going to start picking up the way that the chatbot puts words together or words that the chatbot favors. Part of the thing that was very interesting to me about this, though, was, was that how, you know, the chatbots, these are large language models, so they aren't coming up with this stuff. They are trained on lots and lots and lots of human speak from wherever that's coming from. And then from that training, they then produce their outputs. So they're learning how to put together words from us, and then in turn then some of us are learning to put together words from them. But where it was really interesting was that they're saying that a lot of chatbots or chatbots get a lot oftentimes from, like, certain parts of the world. They're like, so, oh, they might get, you know, there's a lot of text in Nigeria that they're pulling. And. And they may use certain vocabulary, certain words they use delve a lot or something like that in that country. And then that will then spread and start popping up in other places where people start using that vocabulary also a lot. And again, not because they're trying. People are trying to mimic it. It's because that's what you're exposed to. That's what you're engaging with in the same way, like I said, that certain professions will have, and they all start sounding the same. So to me, I, when I saw it, I'm like, yeah, of course. You know, you're just, basically, you're in.
You're interacting, and your kind of social circle now involves an AI chatbot.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it's funny, I'm just thinking as you talk about Nigeria, I read that too. And I'm thinking like, yeah, the revenge of the African continent. Not Everybody else.
In 100 years, everybody's going to be, you know, sounding like a Nigerian.
Yeah.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: So.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: But now it's interesting, I'm laughing, too, because when you talk about my industry, you know, there's certain words and phrases that, like, you're saying they do pop up and then people start using them, and you're right, they take a hold. And my, My. My least favorite one, which I love to bash, is the term basis points.
Because I remember when I first heard that, like, 15 years ago, you know, somebody, some mutual fund wholesaler trying to sell me on their product, and they're like, trying, you know, because it makes you sound smarter, right?
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Oh, yeah.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: This. This fund outperformed that fund over there by 135 basis points. And I saw it sounds all grandiose, right? Like, oh, shit, that's a lot. And then you're like, that's 1.35%.
You want me to take all this extra risk over 10 years just to make an extra 1.3. Now I'm good. I'll be the tortoise over here.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: But it sounds better when you say if he said, but it sounds all smart, right?
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Like, yeah, we outperformed this other firm by 25 basis points. I'm sitting there talking to my client like, you know, that means 0.25%.
You know, like, so. So it's the kind of thing that. That's why it always annoys me when people use that. I'm like, dude, you know, I see what you're doing.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Jargon, man. Jargon. Yeah.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: So, yeah, and I think that that is.
I think that I've heard this term. I don't know if it's called code switching or something that people accuse. Sometimes people who are of certain group other use the English language. I'm sure every language has an example of this. But let's say when you're in front of. I mean, I think that honestly is as black Americans, we.
And I'm not saying that to bring up anything else, I'm just saying that culturally we understand this nuance because we, you and I specifically, can be around a group of certain black Americans and really start. Our jargon will start going more towards more ebonics and more kind of. That kind of cultural jargon. But then when you show up in a trial in front of a judge, or I show up to do a presentation on PowerPoint in front of 30 people talking about the stock market, I'M not using Ebonics and that type of jargon. I'm using proper English. And so sometimes people can be accused of code switching when they do that. I would say, at least personally, I'll speak for me. I don't really consciously think of that. It's more of a comfort level wherever you're at and also understanding the audience you're in front of.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: That's the piece, though, right? There is the audience, like, if I go into a certain circle and start talking like an attorney, it's like, well, who are you trying to impress? I'm over here using the word base. Like, if you showed up, like, yeah, yeah, that guy's a great free throw shooter. He's, you know, 1.2 more basis points than the other guy. And you're in a sports bar, people are like, yo, man, get out of here with that. So a lot of it's your audience, though. Like, the code switch thing has a negative connotation, but a lot of times it's like, well, hold up. The point of communication is to get your point through to the audience that you're communicating with. So if you're over here, I'm gonna try that.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: That's why I'm laughing. I go to a sports bar.
I might surprise you.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: Has like a 8.4 basis point chance of making this kick.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: No, but I might surprise you. I might come back and say, james, I got three new clients doing that.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: I'm doing it again next week.
They were very impressed.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: They thought I was all smart, man. They were like, damn, you must be.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: Good with this stuff.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: Let me give you all my money right here at the bar.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: No, that's good stuff. That's good stuff. So, yeah, the reference to the kind of the, the, the being whether you, you switch from a slang to, to more proper depending on your setting, you know, that's something that, as you said, a lot of times people do that without even thinking about it. Sometimes people do, you know, so. And I mean, I think that the code switching accusation a lot of times comes when, when people are saying that somebody's doing that intentionally. And, you know, that's getting a little bit into somebody's head, though, you know.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: In my mind, I know, yeah, that's something.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: But nonetheless, it does show, though, that kind of our. What we're around can influence us in terms of how we even communicate. And so, I mean, I see this, though. It's like many people in our society now are very excited about how AI may change the world, you know, and do the, you know, hey, people, you know, talking silliness, like, oh, nobody have to work anymore, you know, like that kind of stuff, but just also in general, just making people more productive, which they're on to something. I'm not saying that they're wrong, but what I think this raises is the possibility is. Well, not just raises, but it kind of confirms. So the people who have already talked about this is that AI, the biggest change I might have is the change that it makes on us. And so, you know, so I'll kick that to you first, you know, like, what do you think? You know, like the kinds of, whether it be this or any kind of other things, like, how do you think AI may be sizing up to change us as the change, you know, humans as the biggest change that it makes in the world?
[00:29:27] Speaker B: So let me try and tie this in, because I think that what we just were joking about, I think is one of the realities. I do think that. And you make a good example with this, the word delve from the, I would say maybe overuse of that word in the English language by Nigerian English speakers, but because they've been hired by OpenAI to do, you know, be the humans that help troubleshoot and all that with ChatGPT, unintentionally, it's kind of a feedback loop. Their, Their.
Their activities are now causing Americans to use that word more.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: So it's causing a convergence, actually. A convergence among disparate here.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: So, yeah, so there's a term in the article. That's why I said it said, you know, I want to get the word.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: Convergence now, you know, like, so is that, that AI in my head, man, I don't know.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: I would say that you used it appropriately in that topic.
[00:30:20] Speaker A: So in that sentence, would I use that? Well, I don't know. I don't use a lot of AI, so I'm not the best.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say so, so, and also, what other word would you have used? Right. So in that one. So, but anyway, real quick, the quote that they said is, it's more like likely an example of chatbots, quote, smuggling cultural practices into places they don't belong. Close quote. And that's what I thought. Very interesting. The word delve is an English word.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: But if culturally in Nigeria it's used more than it is in America, this idea of smuggling it in I thought was interesting. It's like through this back channel of the AI, we may, they may unintentionally change our speaking culture and use that word more.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: So, so AI is what that got.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: Me thinking of James.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: So AI is like hypnot. AI is going to bring all these, all these words from, from a particular culture and then put them all into another culture.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: And, and great point. Hip hop's another great example of that. And so here's, here's what I was going to. I want to throw this back to you for your thought, because then I, my galaxy brain went and said, this reminds me a lot of the concept from Sapiens of the unification theory. It's another check on that, on that kind of marker along the way that the Internet is bringing humans culture together more. And maybe this is an example where in 100 years, if we took a time machine out of however many billion humans there are in the world. Think about it. Already we have billions of humans speaking the same language. We have, I think, a billion people that speak Spanish in the world between South America and Spain, we know we have one and a half billion people that speak Chinese. You got another billion people that speak Hindu or I don't want to botch it, but with the name of the Indian language. And then we have probably a half a billion people in the world that speak English. Between America, Canada, Australia, England, all that.
So what if we. In a hundred years, you have 75% of all humanity. Let's say there's 10 billion people on the world, seven and a half billion all speak in the same way. And that's what I'm saying.
[00:32:20] Speaker A: That way was invented by AI.
What if AI merged all the languages.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: Together and then like, hey, it's funny, let's not even go to. So what if RAI did that with a religion?
Let me not go there. But we want to start with the.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Plot of a Marvel movie. Man, I don't know about that, man.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: Hold on.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: But let's stick with religion.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: Maybe this is undoing the whole thing about the Tower of Babel. Maybe AI will bring us back to a unified.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: Hey, maybe, maybe. But I'll say this. I think that definitely the idea and how it can. Because it melds all these things together and then pushes them onto people in a large space.
Yeah, I think the convergence idea is a very good idea. The other thing I think about with this actually is the type of thinking that our brains will no longer do because of this. And this also reminds me actually of that book Sapiens and talks about how a hunter gatherer perceived the world versus how once people got into agriculture and then industrialized, how the things we see, the things we don't notice, stuff like that. So how our brains kind of work and process things, what's going on around us changed depending on what we needed in order to survive, what we needed in order to thrive. And so to me, it's like, it's. It's on a lower level. It's kind of like the calculator, you know, and how once people, you know, use calculators, then the ability to do simple math in your head kind of deteriorated or even, you know, you want to go a step further. Well, not a step further, but a side step from that. It's like, you know, growing up in the 90s, you may become very good at remembering phone numbers, you know, like in your head, like, or, you know, 90s, 80s, whatever. Like, you can. Somebody gives you seven numbers, you can remember them and, you know, like, you can use it again, you know, because you may be incentivized because, you know, girl gives you a number and it's like, yeah, I want to have it now. You know, I don't think that that's something that our brains are accustomed to doing. So whether it be simple math, you know, and being able to do that quickly in your head, whether it be remembering phone numbers, it's like if we don't use things, our brains kind of like, get rid of them. So whatever thinking that people intend or plan to kind of offload onto AI engines, it's conceivable that we will become less capable of doing that type of thinking ourselves, or at least people that engage in that a lot. So I think that kind of change is the kind of change that can make a big difference in terms of how societies, how people interact, how societies and cultures, the direction they go and so forth, is how it can influence the way that we either perceive what's going on around us or our capabilities as far as what we can think about, what we can conceive, what we can understand.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I agree, and I think that it's interesting, man. That's why I think that this is another example, like we've talked about with other things in these conversations we've had, that humans are malleable. And I think it is.
You make a very interesting point with the hip hop, and I think I.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Knew I'd get you with that one.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: No, we. Because, yeah, because we obviously are of that culture and we're of the generation.
[00:35:23] Speaker A: That we remember when it was nowhere. Yeah, it was. It was nowhere city.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: You know, you had to sneak in a cassette tape in the late 80s into your room so your mom didn't hear you listening? All the F words in nwa, you know, because that was so new, right? Nobody made music like that before, you know, and so let's not get, let's not get the young people into too short.
That vulgarity. But an iced tea. But, but, but, no but, but that's what I'm saying is that we go from, you know, 30, 40 years ago, a culture that was really on the fringe of society, that now in today's world we have, you know, prominent figures and politics and entertainment and all that news, people that use hip hop slang and jargon. And so, and so that's why I say in 100 years, based on the way that the Internet and this technology is permeating the world.
That I think that's why I thought about that unification theory of, yeah, we could have much more of a monoculture globally because of this stuff in future, in, in the next 50 to 100 years. And, and so, yeah, well, yeah, I.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: Mean, like that it's interesting.
[00:36:31] Speaker B: I won't be alive to see it.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: Every episode now you keep ending it with something about some kind of morbid, you know, comment. Man, you gotta, you gotta have a more uplifting message at the end of these. But no, I mean, the thing, the thing you said though, about hip hop and how the wording has permeated in a lot of, a lot of places around the world, I think is very, is on point. I mean, and that's, that's a smaller level though, again, because that still has, that's not omnipresent, so to speak, in terms of where everybody's accessing that in so many different ways. You know, like, that's music, that's entertainment, you know, like so. And what we're doing here is potentially much more revolutionary. And I mean, again, I think that the insight itself that the AI, the biggest change that the AI may make in our world is the change that it makes in us or to us is really the big takeaway here. And then what we're seeing right now is kind of maybe the beginnings of that and we're only a couple years in of the large scale interactions with AI agents. So, I mean, yeah, it's like one of these things, like, buckle up.
The only thing we do know is that things tomorrow are not going to necessarily be what they were yesterday.
So the AI is one of these things. It's a change agent of the many that we've had throughout human times. And so here we go. And being able to observe the changes and talk about them is something that can be interesting sometimes. So from that, I think we can wrap this show up. We appreciate everybody for joining us on this episode of Call Like I See It. Subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it, tell us what you think. Send it to a friend. Till next time, I'm James Keys.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: I'm Tunde with Alana.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: All right, we'll talk soon.
