AI, Internet Wars & Windows 11’s “Big” Update

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[00:00:48] I don't know how to respond to this, Jay. This is so interesting. And I don't like, you know, to take tech and make it political. But in this case, I don't see how you avoid it. Elon Musk's DOGE, that's the Department of Energy or Department of Government Efficiency. Yep.

[00:01:04] They say they're working on a, quote, custom chatbot called GSAI, which is like the government accountability, whatever it is. And it's a chatbot. And the goal of the chatbot, they say, is a goal to use AI and other high tech technologies to cut government costs and monetize the US government.

[00:01:34] What do you think of that? Are you comfortable using AI for that? I think that there's a lot of things that AI can be used for. I don't think it should make the final decision. Should it advise people that are intelligent and making good decisions? And can it look into things and see correlations and savings where the average Joe probably can't? Absolutely. So am I in favor of it using it as a tool? Yes. Am I in favor of putting it in charge? No.

[00:01:59] Well, and that's the quintessential reality that I think we all need to kind of think about. I just find that interesting. And to me, taking the politics out of it, hey, any way we can, I mean, think about AI, artificial intelligence. All it is is incredible search tool and then the ability to assemble information based on detailed guidelines that it's been given. Right. And that's all it really is, is a super search tool. Right.

[00:02:29] Whatever it's trained on. I want people to understand that because, OK, and it's important to really realize that it's intelligent. It can really do a lot of things that we can't do in terms of it can, you know, look at its its its data set and it can bring out really cool and interesting and unique details that are valuable. I think it'll be a very valuable tool in getting this done. And I think decisions, I agree, need to be made by individuals. But there's nothing wrong. What's the difference between that and an analytics department that puts together reports?

[00:02:59] No, I is just doing that in a much more efficient, fast, simple way. Now, do I think that you ought to rely on AI completely? No, I think people ought to double and triple and quadruple check the numbers and the details like analysts do. I think we need to say, hey, like an accountant, if this, you know. This number is arrived at, let's let's back in and do it by hand and confirm that it's really right. And I mean, I believe there's needs to be some caution here. Yeah, but you got to have me.

[00:03:26] You got to be able that are not of the sky is falling tool or something to be afraid of. This is something to be, in my mind, celebrated saying, hey, let's put our finger on the pulse of what really matters. Let's double and triple and quadruple check it. And then with all the key data points or KPIs, let's make intelligent decisions. That's nothing different that's been happening forever. It's just the next step in this evolution. Agreed. But you got to have people that are really checking into things and doing stuff.

[00:03:52] You can't have like like we've seen with the Treasury Department, people that are just rubber stamping everything and don't deny a single thing in 20 years or whatever. You got to have real people that are saying looking at the outcome of the A.I. to say, is this is this good? You know, evaluate it and make an intelligent decision. Yeah. Like if the A.I. says put a billion dollars in Sam Bushman's bank account, you probably should go. Well, hold on. Wait a minute now. I mean, I can see why far too much. But I don't think we should do that. Right. Exactly.

[00:04:22] I just find it fascinating. And and you say, well, that's crazy, Sam. Why would it say that? I don't know. I'm just saying sometimes it hallucinates. Sometimes it gets it wrong. And we need people, humans that have the ability to really assess and go, wait a minute, something's not right here. That doesn't make sense. And people need to bring truth. You've got all kinds of data, though, that you can feed into this thing from years gone past and spending and everything else that you can apply to it and make a real benefit.

[00:04:47] All right. Next story of interest that I find, Jay, a better battery laptop percentage indicator is coming to Windows 11. Really? And how is it better? Yeah, man. Windows 11 laptop users can finally rejoice, Jay. Thanks to Microsoft's quote latest improvement. And much better battery status display.

[00:05:12] You know, of all the things in Windows 11, you can only see a battery level indicator in the bottom right hand corner of the Windows 11 taskbar. OK. And it didn't immediately show you the percentage of your batteries charge. No, you had to hover over it. Hover your mouse cursor over the thing and stuff like that to see it. And then you had to right click to see some of the power settings and details.

[00:05:37] But now in a preview version of Windows that's currently available to Windows 11 insiders, there's an approved view. And it shows your battery charge percentage at all times without hovering over it. No hovering, no clicking, none of that necessary. They say when this comes to the general public, y'all be able to see your laptop percentage. I'm thinking they're calling this novel, Jay. I mean, I agree it's cool and we need it. But why hasn't this been the case forever?

[00:06:06] Of all the problems and issues with Windows 11, I don't think this is the most glaring one. I don't think people are crying about the battery indicator. I mean, good for them for improving it. But come on, this isn't the biggest issue. Well, of course not. I'm just telling you that's one big thing that they're pushing right now, though. And they're saying it's incredible because when you're watching a movie, all you got to do is glance down at that thing and you know if you're about to run out of batteries and shut your movie down. Whereas before it was just a big old to do. Now it's really easy, Jay.

[00:06:31] No, what I feel about this is that these little tiny, almost insignificant kind of changes that they make to Windows to try to sell it to people of why you need to move to Windows 11 because now we have a better battery indicator. And it's just not the case. It's just kind of smoke and mirrors a little bit. Well, it is the case that it's a better battery indicator. No, I know. But it's not the case of what people need. People want – that's not what people want. People want Windows 10 to be reliable and to just continue on. They just want Windows. They don't care about what version it is.

[00:07:00] Just keep it moving forward. Keep it reliable. Keep it secure. Lock it down. Stop trying to sell us on weird, obscure features so that we'll upgrade to another version and everybody will buy another version or you can expire a previous version. Just keep things moving forward and keep them secure. We've talked about this before. Doesn't your phone have a battery indicator, Jay? Yeah, right at the top. Do you have to hover over that thing and right-click and do all this crap? Well, okay. That's an interesting discussion.

[00:07:28] So on Apple's default is it's a battery indicator that shows sort of a graph. You know, there's only, you know, a couple of dozen pixels there to show the graph so you can kind of guesstimate. But there is a setting you can go into settings and turn on the percentage. So mine doesn't just show that little meter kind of thing. It actually says right now it says 88%. So I'm at 88%. Almost everybody I know turns that on. I don't know why they don't turn it on by default. And people that don't know it or haven't seen it. Because I think it takes a little bit more battery, right? No, I don't think so. I don't think so.

[00:07:57] The display is the display. So I don't know that it takes any more battery. My assumption would be it doesn't. But people that see it are just like, how did you do that, man? You know, because they just don't know. But it should be the default. Everybody wants a number. So Windows wants to charge you to catch up to what everybody else is already doing. Is that what we're saying? Yeah. I mean, it's like, again, I think it's kind of smoke and mirrors features of look at Windows 11. You really got to upgrade. I don't think you do. Anyway, I'm just saying it's ridiculous. I appreciate that it's better.

[00:08:26] I agree. But to make it sound like, man, this is something to look forward to in Windows 11. It's just like, oh my gosh, all these other systems have already had that. This is a no brainer. Why they didn't have that before? I don't even know. But it's just a continual situation where Microsoft is just playing catch up. No wonder the desktop operating systems are going away. They're so far behind. They celebrate showing you your actual battery status. What a novel feature. Maybe they ought to do something.

[00:08:54] But to be fair, Microsoft has done in the past the same thing. You have a little icon, a couple, maybe 10, you know, 15 pixels or whatever. And if you just glance down there, you can tell, is your battery at 75% or 25% by looking at it? But I think the granularity of just overlaying a two-digit number, now you know exactly where your battery is at. Is it at 73% or is it at 65%? People want to know. They want to know exactly where their battery is.

[00:09:22] It's their biggest worry, especially when they're out and they're far away from a charger, is how long do I got to last? I don't want my phone to die or my laptop and strand me in the middle of while I'm working on my dissertation here, you know? Well, and it seems to me, Jay, that two numbers, right? Right. I mean, I guess you could say three numbers if you wanted to say 100%, but whatever. All I'm saying is that's got to be easier to display than a graph or pixels or something. You would think so. That's an approximation based on a graph, right?

[00:09:49] You don't work in a GUI department, right, for user interfaces. So they just want icons and pictures, and sometimes they don't. No, dude, I want the least simple, clear, most concise way that sucks the least amount of battery to tell me exactly what's going on right now. I know it. That's what I want. Same. You know? Same here. Crazy. And same with most people, too. But, you know, that's not the job of user interface guys. The UI guy has got to make it look pretty. Hey, Jay, are you standing at your desk right now, buddy?

[00:10:18] Are you one of those, you know, crank your desk up, stand up guys? I am not. I don't have a standing desk. I mean, sometimes I stand at my desk if I'm on a phone call or something. Don't you know that's the key to good health? It's pretty trendy right now, right? The standing desk issue. But, you know, there's new studies out that say standing desks are not as healthy as you think. Sorry to standing desk users, but a new study says that standing more than two hours doesn't protect against cardiovascular risk. It actually heightens individuals' risk of circulatory problems.

[00:10:47] And no evidence of standing or sitting is any better. They actually say instead try moving every half hour or so instead of the standing desk. So, you know, it's I mean, it probably doesn't hurt, although they say there could be some other different implications, you know, but you just can't be sedentary. Either way, you need to be moving. You got to get things going. What I find fascinating about this discussion is, man, they're always telling you that this is the case and this is the case. And then later they're like, oh, we don't really know that.

[00:11:17] Yeah, that's science, though, I think. Doesn't matter what it is, right? Right. Science is always like, hey, this is this is what we know right now. And then you test those things and sometimes you find out that it wasn't the case at all. I'm not very smart. Shouldn't you test those things before you say we know them? Yeah, you should. OK, I'm just kind of wondering because I'm kind of dumb there. You got to test and find out if you don't have any substantial proof that it's the case and don't make the claim and don't sell a bunch of desks based on this idea and everything else. It's interesting to me, too.

[00:11:47] They have meetings and the goal of the meeting is to say let's have a standing meeting. So the idea is we'll keep the meeting short enough where people can just stand up through the meeting. So now you're standing at your desk, standing at your meeting, standing at the water. Pretty soon you got to do your whole job standing. Yeah, there's a lot of people to me. Any position that your body's in for a long, long, long, long, long time is not good. Yeah, you should have a comfortable mix, right? How do you know? Because your body can feel it, Jay. Yeah, you're right because it tells you, hey, I'm tired of doing this part. Am I really stupid or what?

[00:12:15] And so these scientists go off on all this garbage and I'm going, dude, if you're standing too long, you're like, man, I got to sit down. I wonder why. Maybe you've been standing too long. How? Oh, man, I'm sitting and I got to get up. I got to walk around for a minute. I wonder why you think that. Maybe because your body's too. So we don't need all these science and these clowns selling all these desks and doing all these different things and science saying that they know. And then, well, we didn't really know. Why don't you find out first? And why don't you slow down a little bit?

[00:12:42] But see, they've got this whole sales pitch to these things, too. Hey, Jay, you need a split ergonomic keyboard because it's better for your corporal or what is that thing? Carpal tunnel. Yeah. Okay. It's better for them. And then they're like, oh, my gosh, turning your wrist kind of sideways isn't good for you. And then it's just trends and stuff, though, too, I think. I think it's got a lot to do with trends. But, you know, they do have these desks that are kind of cool where the whole thing can raise up and down so you can shift it back and forth. It could be a standing desk or a sitting desk. And I don't have any problem with that technology.

[00:13:11] I think that's cool because it keeps you moving and it lets you adjust. Like you said, if you're tired of sitting and you want to stand for a little bit or you're having a meeting and you want to be a little more active or speak better. You know, they say you stand up for your diaphragm and you sound better when you speak and stuff. I think it's pretty cool. So, you know, just keep it moving. My only problem is this idea that we're going to pitch into science. We're going to sell a ton of stuff. And at the end of it, we're going to be like, oh, we didn't really realize that's not really true. It's not really that way. It's like, okay, stop. Stop.

[00:13:38] And to me, I mean, if I'm going to do anything, I want to recline. Jay, if I'm going to be in the office, let me just do Lazy Boy kind of deal. That's probably better for me. You need to get a Lazy Boy. Set your mic up, Sam, for your radio studio and you can just chill out and relax. But if I did all that, see, I could get some Z's in and they always say sleep is good. That's the problem, right? If you set it up like that, you know, half the time you'd just be, Sam, Sam, Sam, wake up. Come on. Don't go to sleep. I'm just saying. It's just. I find it interesting.

[00:14:07] What are they in trouble, Jay? Comcast shares drop from market. Imagine competition, Jay. Comcast is always in trouble. Anyway, it's a very interesting story here from NBC. They say Comcast and their stocks tumbled. This is a couple of weeks ago, so I don't know where it is exactly right this second.

[00:14:33] But they say they expect to lose over 100,000 broadband customers during the fourth quarter of 2024. And they say in a highly competitive environment. And while executives blame the problem on a, quote, slowdown in the, quote, buying and selling of homes, the wrapped up competition from wireless providers like Verizon, T-Mobile and others have played a critical role as well.

[00:15:02] The company said in October that domestic broadband net losses of 87,000 during the third quarter. And then they say this, and I find this interesting. They say the losses are stemming from the end of the, quote, government's affordable connectivity program. Exactly.

[00:15:27] Which they say has offered a, quote, discount for qualifying low income households. So what you've got then really is Comcast on the dole. They're saying, oh, my gosh, you're in this government program and now Comcast. I wonder if that chat bot Elon's putting together pointed that out or what, Jay. Well, no, I don't think so because that ended before. But yeah, it's true. I'm just making a point. That's the kind of stuff, right? You're kind of subsidizing it.

[00:15:57] So this isn't really a loss necessarily for them. I mean, it is, but it's more of a correction of what the market's doing. Also, speaking of Elon, you've got Starlink out there, and they're competing actually rather well with a lot of these cable companies. Now, at first you'd say, well, Starlink, $120 a month, that's expensive. There's a lot of cable packages and stuff now that are cable and broadband that are well over $100 now.

[00:16:25] It used to be you could get a good cable connection, $50, $60, $70 a month. Because now they're $120, $150 sometimes you see in different areas. And I think this is competing with it pretty heartily is not just satellites. So you've got the satellite. There's another international one. I can't remember the name of it. Amazon is about to release at the end of this year. They're going to release their Kuiper project, which is going to be another satellite-based thing. And they're talking about $50 a month for broadband. So we're going to see. Yeah, but let's be clear.

[00:16:56] Elon Musk talked about certain numbers, too, and he's had to do nothing but raise them, raise them, raise them. And so the technology is real. The technology is getting better. The technology is incredible. I get all that. But it can't be delivered as cheaply as people had hoped. Now, over time, it probably will. But that's an interesting twist. And Comcast, by the way, do you know how many subscribers Comcast has? No. Probably millions. All Comcast had nearly 32 million domestic broadband customers.

[00:17:26] That number shocks me. Yeah. That's a huge number. 10% of the nation on Comcast. Yeah. No, that sounds right. I would agree that that's probably right. And so $100,000 is not huge, but it is a dent. It's significant. Yeah. But anyway, I find that interesting. My problem with Comcast is they always kind of pitch themselves as they're the premier internet. So you can go somewhere else, but, you know, Comcast, they'll come out in two hours and fix your connection. And they'll do this and they'll do that. And I just, I've used Comcast for literally 20 plus years.

[00:17:56] And I find that they have a lot of hype about how awesome their service is. But when push comes to shove, it's average at best, Jay. And one of the things I really think they could do if they want to stop the bleed is truly deliver on that promise or decrease your costs to compete with everybody else. And I also find that Comcast charges a lot when they're like the only game in town. Exactly. Then when they have a bunch of competition, they drop their prices. Now that's to some degree normal in one way. And the other way, other hand, problematic.

[00:18:22] When you get government money and then you keep that price up, at what point do we say, wait a minute, what's that, a monopoly? There is problems with that. Yeah, because you can't be, you can't have that monopolistic attitude when you cover huge areas of the country. And so in somewhere where there's a market, a small town or whatever, and there's another competitor there, then, well, for that town, you're going to drop your price to $40 a month for Comcast ripping internet.

[00:18:51] And just to put somebody out. Yeah, you can't, you can't really do that. Now, if they drop their price across the board everywhere, I think that's smart. And I think that they, you can compete and you can actually bring in more customers with a lower price. Sadly, I've talked to Comcast and said, can you drop my price? And they said, would love to, but the government won't let us. Now, that's a whole nother can of worms, right? And how true that statement is in my specific example or whatever, I don't know.

[00:19:17] But I do know that the FCC and the Securities and Exchange Commission and all these other government, you know, they literally manipulate and prop up prices. And then you find out that, hey, they're saying we're bleeding customers now because they're shutting down this government program. And then you kind of go, man, a lot of it is true. Well, it can be. And it can be inadvertent and not even necessarily on purpose.

[00:19:37] Like you see this in pharmaceuticals where certain places cannot have cash pay prices for less than what they're selling to the insurances. But the insurances are so hyped up and they have, you know, really low paybacks and distributions. And it just it causes a problem for everybody. And it unbalances a free market. And that can be the issue. And it's probably very similar with Comcast.

[00:20:04] All I know is I need better, faster, cleaner or stable Internet. And it needs to be affordable. And the reason I say that is because, look, in modern society, you can't do anything without the Internet. Hardly, Jay. It's like electricity now. You know, I mean, you need it to. I mean, even if you want to file an insurance claim or something like that, they're like, oh, go in here, fill out this form, upload these documents, do this, do that. And you literally can't even function without the Internet nowadays, really.

[00:20:32] Yeah, it's what a phone line was 50 years ago. It's just a basic essential service. So speaking of phone lines, this is kind of a weird blend in technology. I don't even know how to respond to it exactly. What I want to do is talk about it a little bit in this segment. And then I want to in the next show, I kind of want to pick up the same theme for a reason. Imagine blending super old telephone line stuff with modern day chat GPT, Jay. You can do it now, actually. Yeah, it's crazy, but you can.

[00:21:01] So it's pretty cool. Open AI has released chat GPT from a landline. So in an effort to make chat GPT more accessible to as many people as possible, they've announced an 800 number. So even if you're on an old landline where you have to pay for long distance, this still works. You call 800-CHAT-GPT. So just put that in your phone, 1-800-CHAT-GPT. And you get an open line to the AI assistant. And you can talk to it and ask it any question you want. And it'll just talk to you all day long.

[00:21:31] It's pretty cool, I think. I've tried it. I don't think we have time in this show. But the next show, why don't we try it, Jay? We can. Can we just do it live on air? Yeah, we can do it live on air. Why not? We can do it right now. Hold on. They say you can do it from a landline or a flip phone. I just find that kind of funny. And they say that this AI assistant will just respond to you and everything else. And is the phone free? But yet if you want an account to type it in, you got to pay?

[00:22:01] No, I don't think so. It's completely free. You can pay for chat and you get what? Let's see. A different, I don't know what you call it. Different databases, different data sets. Here we go. Hold on. I think you get different data sets. Hi, I'm ChatGPT, an AI assistant. Just so you know, our conversation may be reviewed for safety.

[00:22:28] By continuing this call, you agree to open AI's terms and privacy policy. So how can I help you today? Can you tell me about TechWatch Radio? Sure. TechWatch Radio is a hypothetical show focused on the latest trends and developments in technology. It might cover topics like new gadgets, tech industry news, software breakthroughs, and interviews with experts. Is there something specific you want to know about it? Yeah. What does hypothetical mean?

[00:23:00] Hypothetical means something imagined or suggested, but not necessarily real or true. It's often used to explore possibilities or scenarios that haven't actually happened. For example, talking about a hypothetical radio show means discussing a show that doesn't exist in reality, but could exist in theory. Well, I'm the talk show host of TechWatch Radio, and I'm convinced it's absolutely real because you're live on the air with me.

[00:23:30] Well, then, I'm thrilled to be on TechWatch Radio. Let's dive into the latest in tech. What exciting topics are we covering today? Is it real? The show? Is it a real show? Well, in this scenario, TechWatch Radio is a creation of your imagination. But, hey, if you want to turn it into a real show, you've got the creativity to make it happen. What would you like to discuss on your show today?

[00:23:58] We have 3D internet where people can interact, work, and play using virtual reality and augmented reality. It's a hot topic in tech. What aspect interests you? All right. Thank you. Have a nice day. So, Jay, what do you do when she thinks we're not real? I don't know, but I find that hilarious. You know, not everything can be right on. So, you know, sometimes the GPT hallucinates. We all know that.

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