Uncasville, Casinos, and the Rise of the Robots

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH. A.I.: Absolute Ignorance with Jon Reep. That is me, Jon Reep, right here in your ear holes. And I'm not alone. I'm with my man, the Alan Jackson. Hey, hey, Jon. How are you, buddy? I'm good, good. You? I'm doing good, man. Yeah, things are going okay.

[00:00:31] I'm doing good. Yeah, I was in Connecticut this past weekend. Connecticut. Connecticut. At a casino, The Mohegan Sun. Okay. Huge casino. It's like one of the biggest ones on this side of the country. Okay. And, you know, it's in Connecticut. Like some people from New York and all those tiny little northeastern states, like Rhode Island, the little tiny ones. You know, they all just go there. They all just flock to this. Yeah.

[00:00:55] Let me ask, because I'm fascinated with casinos. Is it a casino where they actually have human beings, like tables and stuff like that? It's not all just a bunch of digital. Right. No, this is a full-on Vegas-style casino. Okay, good. That's good. And it was great. I mean, the AI bit, again, did really well. So you did the whole bit where you asked it to find information about, you did a bit where

[00:01:22] AI wrote jokes or comments about the area you went to? Yeah. And that did really well. Yeah. Would you like to hear it? I would. Okay. Remind me the name of the town again you went to. It's called Uncasville. Uncasville, Connecticut. Yeah. There's a chief, Uncas. It was a part of the Mohegan tribe. And they named the whole town after him, Uncasville. Uncasville. Yeah. So chief Uncas. What was the type of Native American up then? It's Mohegan. Yeah. Mohegan. Mohegan.

[00:01:52] Not Mohegan. Right. Not like the last of the Mohegans. The movie I was prominently featured in. Yes. Not, not the last of the Mohegans. Cause I was going to say that was the last of them. Yeah. Like, wait a minute. Are the Mohegans. Well, hang on. Wait, wait, are the Mohegans back? Are you telling me Daniel Day-Lewis survived and actually went to Connecticut and started And then started a whole nother breed of Mohegans. So these are Mohegans.

[00:02:20] Now that you say that, I'm not sure. Maybe they spell it different when it's pluralized. Okay. All right. We got to find this out. Cause I'm going to type in, I'm going to type in Mohegan. Okay. Mohegan. Okay. Oh, I see. It is spelled a little differently. It is Mohegan is M O H E G A N. Okay. Mohegan. Very different than Mohegan. Right. Okay. Yeah.

[00:02:44] Two distinct Native American tribes with similar names and similar language affiliations, but they are not the same. Got it. Okay. Got it. Got it. This would be like if someone from another country, like this is a great Britain. What's the difference between North Carolina and South Carolina? Right. And we would say, well, very similar, but also not. Yeah. I mean, they got the same word Carolina. We have the same word Carolina. We have the same coast along the beach. Like we share against the same ocean.

[00:03:13] Do we have any of the Appalachian mountains? Does it tip into the, I think they tip into the South Carolina just a little bit, but not much. Yeah. So reading up on this, thank you, Google AI. It says the Mohegans, also known as the Stockbridge Mohegans, were primarily located across, along the upper Hudson River in Eastern New York. Okay. Okay. The Mohegans, on the other hand, were a tribe in Southeastern Connecticut. Oh. There you go.

[00:03:42] So they were pretty close to each other. Right. I mean, you know, Connecticut and New York are not that far away. Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. So they were close. I bet there was a lot of confusion. I wonder if they battled each other. Like. I mean, back in the day, Mohegans versus Mohegans. If they were around at the same time, John, that had to have been. They probably did. That had to have been problematic. Like having a tribe with very similar name. Like honestly, some of the people were probably pronouncing it in a way where you could not tell the difference between the names. Right. Yeah, yeah. That's tough. And if you like,

[00:04:11] you get some Southerner up there who can't even pronounce the words right half the time anyway. It's like. Like Mohegan, Mohegan, whatever. Like, what are you? It's like, I'm Mohegan. It's like, all right, I don't understand which one you're saying. Right. I'm Mohegan. Okay. I get it. But yeah, so Mohegan means people of the wolf. Ooh, I like that. I do like that too. Yeah, that's cool.

[00:04:36] But how did the Mohegan tribe successfully get a casino and the Mohegans did not? Because now that's a new thing. We have one in Cherokee where I have a residency. Well, John, I was there. I was with the last of the Mohegans. I mean, the Mohegans are gone. I just answered my own question. Right, they're gone. That was the last. Daniel Day-Lewis was the last of them. So there were no more Mohegans. Okay. Did you hear, speaking of that,

[00:05:07] Hickory, North Carolina, where you and I currently live, is inside of Catawba County. Yes. And Catawba is a tribe. And I'm hearing that they're going to open a casino in Catawba County somewhere. Is this true? I haven't heard that. Okay. I'm not saying it's not true. I just, I don't, I haven't heard it. I feel like it's a matter of time before all of them. Where would we want a casino in Catawba County to be? Somewhere outside of Hickory. Yeah.

[00:05:37] Like, between here and like, is Burke County in Catawba County? No, Burke is Burke County. No, Burke County's. What about, yeah, Burke County's Burke County. I know where you're about to say. Sorry. I was going to be really smart-ass. I know what you mean. But I didn't. Okay. But what's out, what's the furthest away from Hickory that is also in Catawba County? That's where we put the casino. So if you go up north, in north in Catawba County, this is for everybody who's not familiar with the geography of our home county here.

[00:06:06] We're going to get to AI in a minute. Hickory's on kind of the northern side of Catawba County anyway. Okay. You go much further north. You're in Iredale? You cross over into Alexander County? Okay. Or like the Bethlehem area? Okay. We have a Bethlehem here. Yes, we do. In our area. You cross over there and you're in Bethlehem. I think that's when you're in Alexander County. All right. So Hickory's about as far north as we can go. All right. So we go south. We've got the Mountain View area. Okay.

[00:06:36] We go a little southeast. We're in Newton, Conover area. Okay. That's where we put it. Either in Mountain View. Oh, Mountain View would be great. Actually, you know what? Mountain View, I'm with you. That would be a good area. Right at the foot of the Baker's Mountain. That's a perfect area for a casino. Come on, Catawba Tribe. Who is the chief of the Catawba Tribe? Get him on the horn. Let's wheel. Let's deal. Let's make some cash for the people of Mountain View. My mom is going to love it.

[00:07:04] Property values through the roof. Or the exact opposite. Or it could. No stuff. Have you ever been 10 feet outside of a Native American casino? Yes, I have. Not always the best. Not great. Anyway. So there will be some mixed emotions in the Mountain View area if we successfully campaign for a casino there. That's right. Well. I say, but you know what, John? Or Newton. Would you like Newton better? Yeah.

[00:07:31] You know, I'm fiddling with Newton area right now for some ideas. Oh, yeah. I think Newton's got some potential for something. It does. I know you're probably searching over there for a certain thing. I am. I am. And so I wonder if that might be a bit. I don't know. Mountain View just seems like the right area. It does because of Baker's Mountain. Yeah. Now, I'm friends with, for real, and this is not a joke, I am friends with the chief of the Cherokee tribe. Okay. It's a dude.

[00:08:00] His name is Michelle. Michelle. Hicks. And he is southern sounding as anybody. The chief of the Cherokee tribe. Yes. His name is Michelle Hicks. Yes. Do you know a girl named Michelle Hicks? I think I do. But I... I'm sure there's one that went to Ford's. I mean, but does he have a... He doesn't have a cool Native American name? Like, you know. I don't know. I mean... I didn't ask him. When he said Michelle, that threw me off enough. Right. So I didn't even divert into the Native American part.

[00:08:30] I was just like, Michelle? Hicks. Like, hi, Michelle. Anyway, he's the chief. I didn't want to mess with him. Well, no. I mean, I just... I don't know. I'm being very stereotypical right now. I just assume somebody in that position in a prominent Native American tribe would have a more authentic name. Right. Well, maybe Michelle, the Native American, walks with a skirt. Right. I mean, it could be. I don't know. I just...

[00:08:57] I think we need to explore that because I really want to learn if there's a better name. Anyway, where's the skirt? Fine. Chief Michelle. I don't know. He's a great guy, but I'll talk to him. See if he knows the chief of the Catawba tribe. Okay. See if we can work us a deal out. So the Catawba tribe obviously kind of has roots in Catawba County. Right. Cherokee tribe is kind of west in the mountains area around us. Okay. All right. I'm just typing in Catawba tribe right now.

[00:09:27] The Catawba Indian Nation is a federally recognized tribe in South Carolina with their reservation located near Rock Hill. So maybe that's where it's going. Rock Hill. They are the only federally recognized tribe in the state. The tribe has a long history dating back over 6,000 years and their culture is centered around the Catawba River. They are known for their pottery tradition, which they still practice today. There you go.

[00:09:56] I like it. So maybe that's where our... Now that would still be closer than Cherokee for us. Like if we wanted to... If you wanted a casino close to here without having to go to Cherokee, which is two hours from here, then you would have... Then Rock Hill would be... You know, that's probably like an hour away. Hmm. A little bit closer. But still not Mountain View, not Newton. So I'm looking up the Catawba Nation, which is the Catawba tribe, like you were looking up. Yeah.

[00:10:24] So their chief is Brian Harris. You hate that. It's too wide sounding. You hate it. Michelle Hicks and Brian Harris. I'm white. It needs to be a badass name. I get it. It does. I mean, I just... I really... I want it to be a badass name. I think those are cool. And it's just... Yeah. I think it's like preserving the heritage of the tribe. It's like... Yeah. I get it. Brian Harris. I had math class with that guy. I did. And it's not even Brian spelled the cool way with a Y in the middle. It's like...

[00:10:54] It's just standard Brian Harris. Yeah. Okay. That's interesting. All right. So we could be... What's your take on... I know you've got a residency at a casino right now. So you're in a casino every month. Mm-hmm. Performing. Yes. Are you a casino guy? I mean, you go to casinos a lot. You play. I mean, you... Well, if I'm with people, it's a lot of fun. Yeah. But if I'm the only guy there... Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Like, for example, this past weekend, I didn't take Jody with me.

[00:11:23] This was a work trip. I went there to work. Yeah. I stayed there. I had a show Thursday, Friday, and I was there three nights. You did three nights at Cherokee? Yeah. Okay. Was that kind of... Uncasville. Oh, in Uncasville. That's right. Yeah. In the casino at Uncasville. Yes. Got it. Okay. Yeah. But that... I mean, had I been with friends, it would have been a great time. Mm-hmm. But I was there by myself just to work. Yeah. Did you play anything like Bonner? Okay. But if I do play something, it's Blackjack or it will be Roulette.

[00:11:52] I want to learn craps and roulette a little bit because it seems to be fun. Craps looks like fun, but man, it's like soccer for me. It's like I can watch it and I'm like, I have no idea what the rules are. I do not know what's going on. Right. I don't know why people are cheering. Same. So, yeah. Same. I don't know. It would be a fun little... Oh, it'd be great. ...one night weekend vacation.

[00:12:22] See, I love... Yeah. I love casinos. Okay. I love playing games at casinos, but it has to be with live dealers and tables and all that. None of this digital crap. Yeah, no, no. I don't know. I think the one in Cherokee is pretty much all digital. Is it? I think so. It may have changed because it's gotten a lot bigger. Okay. I don't know. Last time I was there, I remember going through it and I thought it was all digital stuff. Maybe. Maybe. I remember it being that when it first opened. Okay.

[00:12:50] But I don't know what it is now. I really do. Anyway, I love casinos. Yeah. I love playing blackjack. I love roulette. I'll even play poker if they've got some ways of playing poker. Ooh, that one intimidates me. Yeah. But I love poker. Love playing it. Yeah. Well, let me tell you this AI bit that I did for the people in Unca. That's where we were going with all this. That's right. Yeah. I'm bringing it back to the AI. Okay.

[00:13:15] Because what I do, if you're new to the show, is in order to promote this podcast, but also create new content for when I'm on the road, I use AI. I go to chat GPT and I just write a stand-up comedy routine in the style of John Reap about performing in, and then I insert town, but also add for an audience of those people from that town. Okay.

[00:13:42] So it's not like I'm doing this bit about them in some other place, like on TV, where I'm talking down to them. Like, can you believe these people? So it's writing it knowing that I have to get laughs from the people who are from the town. Mm-hmm. Right? So that's a very interesting prompt I put in, very specific thing, because I want it to work. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to piss them off, because I still need them. Yeah. You know? Yeah. At the end of the day, I've got another 30 minutes left after this.

[00:14:09] I've got to keep you engaged, and I still want to sell some T-shirts and stuff afterwards. And they did laugh at all these references in here that I have no idea about, because I'm not from there. I would hope that the AI would know that if you ask for some jokes to be made about a certain town, it's not going to do things that are going to piss people off. It's going to be jokes that are like, everybody gets. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I think everyone will get, but there is a difference between, let's just say I have a joke.

[00:14:37] For example, I've got a bit about West Virginia. Okay. Where I say it's called West, by God, Virginia. The only state to have a middle name, and it's by God. And I say it's one of the most, West Virginia is one of the prettiest states in the country. It's beautiful. And I say, physically. And then when I say physically, people go, if you're not from there, you go, huh? I say, because it's like, and I'm sorry, guys, earmuffs, but this is the bit.

[00:15:07] The times have changed since I wrote the bit, but this is the bit. All right. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. What I say in this bit is West Virginia is a beautiful state physically. It's like, it's got tree covered mountains and beautiful lakes and rivers, but it's kind of like a beautiful retarded girl, you know, because you look at her and you're like, oh yeah. And then you start talking to her and you're like, oh no, there is something wrong with this.

[00:15:36] And so that's West Virginia. Now I've done that joke. People love it, but there are people from West Virginia who have emailed me, who tell me that they hate it and I've gotten threats on my life before from that very joke. So the difference is when I'm writing this for AI, I'm making sure to put in there, make sure that the people from the state that I'm talking about will also like the bit. Oh, so you actually prompted that to AI is like, Hey, and just make sure we don't ruffle feathers

[00:16:06] too unfairly for this place. Everybody should be able to laugh at the place where they live and laugh at the place they grow up and acknowledge jokes about those areas. Just, you know, there's a line where if you go to, where you're basically calling everybody an idiot if they live there, okay, then you have to dance around that. Correct. Right. Now, if you're from there and you're, then you get a pass cause it's like a brother or a sister, like you're allowed to pick on your brother, but if some stranger did, you get very mad. I get very mad. Well, I feel the same way about our hometown here of Hickory.

[00:16:36] It's like, you know, people like John, unfortunately there's a couple of people I know in the town who are just like, Ooh, John, John, I don't like John Reed because he makes fun of Hickory. I'm like, what comedian doesn't make fun of the place they come from? Right. Jerry Seinfeld makes fun of New York. You know, it's like, that's what you do. It's like, this is, this is the way you, you, that's right. He works. Anyway. So that's my pass. If you're allowed to pick on it and call it names, if you're from there. Yeah, that's right.

[00:17:03] I'm not from Connecticut and I want to make sure I was respectful of their town as a visitor on stage, also trying to get them to like me. So this is what AI wrote for you as ideas for Uncasville, Connecticut. Right. Okay. Here we go. Uncasville, baby, sounds less like a town and more like a gated community for retired pilgrims. And that got to be left. Hold on. I don't get that. I don't either. I don't either. But they left.

[00:17:30] It is, because it is right on this huge river. Like if you look out my window. Yeah, yeah. It's like, almost like two rivers coming together. And I'm wondering, did the Mayflower... Wait, what's the deal with the pilgrims? Well, there's more to this. Oh, okay. So I just, right, like a gated community for retired pilgrims. Like, is this where the Mayflower docked for a timeshare presentation? All right. Now that's kind of funny. Yeah.

[00:18:00] I mean, that just... I'm thinking that is, there might be a Mayflower thing. I don't know. Look up pilgrims and Uncasville, Connecticut and Mayflower and see if there's any connection with the history there. Because even though I didn't get it, the people in the audience did. And they were into it. How weird is that? Like you're telling jokes that you technically don't understand. And it's like you're reading them and you're just kind of peering over to the audience like, eh?

[00:18:29] Is this anything? And they're laughing. Like, oh, good. Okay. Yeah. All right. Go ahead. Did you find anything? AI says there's no direct historical connection between pilgrims in Uncasville, Connecticut. Okay. Or a specific pilgrim sentiment there. Okay. The term pilgrims typically refers to the early English settlers who came to North America, blah, blah, blah. They established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. But it's Uncasville. Okay. Uncasville, however, is a town in Connecticut's new London County located a significant distance

[00:18:59] from the pilgrim settlement in Massachusetts. Got it. Well, there are, because it's, there's a significant distance, but you know, in the South, our states are a little bit bigger. They are. Than they are up there in that Northeast corner. True. So, like I was saying before, the comedian I worked with, I go, where are you from? He goes, Boston. Like, there's a lot of these comedians from that Boston area that where he was just saying. So, maybe to them. Maybe. It's close enough. It's not a significant distance.

[00:19:30] Yeah, yeah. It's like us being like Myrtle Beach. Yeah. Okay. Exactly. Myrtle Beach is four hours away. Mm-hmm. But we all. Maybe AI, AI may not, may consider that a significant distance away. Yeah. But we claim Myrtle Beach. If somebody jokes about Myrtle Beach, we get it. Yes. Okay. All right. I see. It could be that. I'm not sure. Like I said, I have no idea. Yeah. So, it goes on to say, I asked someone, hey, what's Oncasville known for? And they go, Mohegan Sun. That's it.

[00:19:59] That's the whole thing. And that got a laugh. Mohegan Sun is the casino. There's nothing, yeah. There's like nothing else to do in Oncasville other than go to that casino. Okay. So, that got a laugh. Okay. I said, no offense, but if this casino ever shuts down, y'all better start learning to whittle or churn butter because the rest of the economy looks like it runs on Keno and Marlboro. Okay. Now, that's really funny. Okay. That's good. Tell them to whittle or churn butter. Yes.

[00:20:29] I'm going to go that far back. All right. That one gets a- That one got a big laugh. That got a good cough clap for me. All right. Now, I love this casino. It's beautiful. It's got waterfalls. True. Shopping. True. Restaurants. True. It's basically what the Pequa tribe imagined when they said, let's make Vegas, but with lobster rolls and less guilt. Now, Pequa tribe is a different tribe that was like close by.

[00:20:57] It is spelled P-E-Q-U-O-T. Pequa tribe. Okay. And they're kind of close to Mohegan tribe, not too far. Yes. Rivals maybe? They are in the Northeast New England coastal area of Connecticut who are rival. Rival tribe. Okay. Right. Yeah. So this one had me make fun of a different tribe, not the one that I was currently in. But isn't that interesting? Like it could have said the Mohegan tribe.

[00:21:26] I mean, yeah, it could have, but it's kind of doing what you also do. Right. Which is when you're performing in a town, you look up and find a town nearby that maybe there's a little bit of a rivalry or you look down on that other town. Yeah. You play off that. Right. But AI is having you do that. I think it's on me. Picking a fight with another tribe. Yeah. Right. Now, look, personally, I'd be a little nervous about picking a fight with another tribe. Yeah. A Native American tribe. Right.

[00:21:55] We have no idea. Well, the first time I read it, because it's spelled P-E-Q-U-O-T, I actually said, because I did four shows there. You're Pequot? Yeah. I said, Pequot? Pequot? And everyone goes, Pequot. Ah. Like, they knew. Yeah, yeah. They're used to people messing it up so much that they corrected me. And I was like, oh, okay. I didn't know that. Ooh, the Pequot tribe has a Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut. Right. Okay.

[00:22:25] And that is, those two casinos are the biggest ones on this side of the East Coast. All the other ones are like Vegas, and all the other Native American tribes, you know, in the country are way smaller. These ones are huge, and they're like Vegas-esque. This is the Mac Daddy, Mac Daddy Native American tribes with casinos. Correct. In the United States, at least on the East Coast. Yeah. Okay. So. All right, go ahead. One last paragraph.

[00:22:55] But walking through here is wild. You'll see a guy in a three-piece suit playing blackjack next to a lady in a Patriots hoodie yelling at a penny slot like it owes her child support. It's magical. I saw a bachelorette party and a senior bus trip merge in front of the buffet, and it was like Shark Week met Golden Girls. No, look. All right. I got to give it.

[00:23:24] AI is getting funnier. Yeah. I mean, it is. John, you did this kind of thing with these cities, you know, over a year ago. Yeah. You were doing this. And it was more funny to hear how bad the jokes were. Right. Now it's like. Now it's getting good. The jokes are actually getting pretty good. Can I tell you something? Yeah, yeah. And I did not reveal this on our other show, Carolina Reaper. Because no one asked me, like, how did it go? And I didn't really get into details. Right. And you know me. Mm-hmm. I'm Johnny Consistency. Right.

[00:23:54] I normally knock it out of the park every time. Okay. Friday night was tough. Really? It was one of the hardest sets I've had in a long time. All right. So why is that? A couple things happened. Yeah. Right out the gate, I didn't get them. Okay. And a lot of times I'd get them right out the gate. Mm-hmm. So I wasn't coasting on confidence and, you know, success. Yeah.

[00:24:23] Like I normally do when I first come out and say I'm from Hickory. People know that and they finish it. I don't think they knew who I was. And so I'm up there like, yeah, you know me. I'm from. They're like. Why didn't you finish the word? Where? What did you say? Oh, Hickory. So now I realize I'm in panic mode. I'm like, oh, these aren't my fans. These are some people, some comps maybe because of the casino. Oh. And they just need to fill the room and sell some drinks. Oh, no. And they don't know who I am. Yeah.

[00:24:53] So that was happening. And I still managed to kind of get them. Now I've launched into the whole Southern bit. Yeah. You know, bless your heart, love your death. They don't know what that is. They've never heard any of these things before. They're not familiar. This is unknown. So they're just listening politely like, okay, I did not know that. Thank you for that information. I have now learned a little bit about Southern culture through this gentleman on stage. Who is not doing comedy, clearly, but is making some weird faces from time to time. I think he's scared of us. So that was happening.

[00:25:23] Yeah. And then these high rollers came in late, like 20, 30 minutes late. Yeah. And I'm in the middle of a bit that is kind of working, but I'm really having to sell it hard. And then they let these people in the room and they had seats right up front, like right in the middle. So I had to stop everything I was doing and say, come on in guys. Come on in. It's okay. And now I don't even want to go back to the bit because it wasn't doing that well to begin with. Yeah. So then I was like, well, where are y'all from?

[00:25:53] And it was tough. Oh, man. And then this happened. Yeah. I'm doing the thing where I go like, you know, I'm newly married. I need some advice. Who's been married the longest? Clap your hands. Been married long. Blah, blah, blah. This lady in the back is clapping. Yeah. Like she's clearly like the only one kind of into it. And I'm like, yeah, okay. How long you been married? She goes, 25 years. And I said, oh, well, where's your husband? And it was, she was in the back. So it was kind of dark. Sure.

[00:26:21] And she goes, oh, he's sitting next to me, but he's asleep. Oh, my gosh. And the crowd laughed out loud at that. So that was the funny. Because they got it. Yeah. They got why he was asleep. They knew I've been suffering for 30. And they weren't mean, by the way. Right, yeah, yeah. Which is even worse in a weird way. Because they let me have it, and then I can adjust. But they're not. They're just letting me do it. They're like, well, we'll just go. Maybe he'll pull through. Yeah, we're just going to let this guy try. Let's see what happens here. And I was like, oh, man. Well, don't wake him up. All right.

[00:26:50] But then that turned it because it was recognition of a moment that I hadn't addressed yet, that I wasn't doing well. And as soon as she said he's asleep, and I reacted the way I did, of course he's asleep. And then everyone laughed at that. That's okay. Then we're all in this together now. I get it. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. And then it was some crowd work, and I got him.

[00:27:15] But it took me 35 minutes to get him. But look, kudos to you, man, for bringing him in eventually and getting him. I mean, that's tough. Yeah. But you're a skilled professional. You knew how to eventually get him in. But it took a little longer to get there. All right. So just a little note to our producer, Moose. Hey, Moose.

[00:27:37] So no booking of John in the Connecticut area, it sounds like, is what we need to remember for the future. Do not go north of, I'd say, Massachusetts. Yeah. Let me look at a map. I'll tell you. Basically, avoid pilgrim country. That's what we're saying. Yeah. I'm going to look up Connecticut. That's funny, though. Yeah. Connecticut. Because I'm looking at a map here, right? I want to see. Yeah. Because to me, all them little northeastern states. Let's do this. I'll make it easy for you guys.

[00:28:07] Because you guys are going to help book me in some theaters next year. Yeah, yeah. You need to know where I work and where I don't work. Right. How about this? Okay. Excluding Pennsylvania, because Pennsylvania, they call it pencil-tucky in some areas. Yeah, yeah. So some areas will work. Okay. But you generally don't want to go north of Washington, D.C. Okay. So D.C. Yeah. D.C. is kind of the dividing line. It's like south of D.C., it's fair game. Fair game.

[00:28:35] John Reap kills anywhere south of Wilmington. South and left. North of Washington, just understanding if something gets booked, John's going to have to work a little harder than normal. So we're talking Philadelphia, nope. New York, nope. Massachusetts, nope. Connecticut, nope. Rhode Island, nope. New Hampshire, nope. Vermont, nope. Maine, nope.

[00:28:59] All them tiny little baby states in that top right corner of America. No can do. But some of Pennsylvania is okay. Yes, some of Pennsylvania is okay. Some of Pennsylvania is okay. All right. Good. This is good to know. This is good to know. But I forgot where I was going with this whole thing about performing at a casino. Well, we're doing the AI bit. You're talking about you use the AI. You read that. That was actually pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. So AI killed. So that was the thing.

[00:29:29] You said that the show was tough. Like you had to, especially the one show, the Friday night show was tough. You had to really get the crowd on board. But they responded to the AI? They did. Okay. They did. They laughed out loud at a couple of, the joke that is working that's not even written by AI. Yeah. I wrote, as I say, artificial intelligence. I think that's what I have. Yeah. Right. And smart people get it right away. Yes. Dumb people have to explain like, my intelligence is not real. It's not real. I think I know everything, but I don't know anything.

[00:29:57] My intelligence is artificial. Yes. And so I have to explain. And then they start coming on board. Okay. All right. But yeah, that was this past weekend. And the paycheck was good. Yeah. That cleared. Okay. Didn't lose money for sure. Didn't sell any barbecue sauce, although I could have. Well, I mean, what kind of barbecue sauce? Do they even do barbecue up there? Here's another funny weird thing. And if they do, like, what type of barbecue is it? Because, well.

[00:30:25] Or sauce, because I know in North Carolina, we have the whole. Yeah. There's the one side on one side of the state, and there's the vinegar base on the right side. So I don't even know what's up north. Like, what are they? They don't know either. Okay. In fact, okay, here's another thing. You got the comedy club inside of the Mohegan Sun. And the name of that comedy club, for example, the one in Cherokee. Yeah. Is called the Comedy Zone. Chain of comedy clubs. All over the South. Yeah. Called the Comedy Zones. They have a residency now in the Mohegan Sun.

[00:30:56] Okay. And all as do I. So the name of the club inside of the Mohegan Sun is called Comics Roadhouse. Yes. Okay. I've heard of that one. Yes. Yeah. That is a Western-themed entertainment thing. So they have a comedy club on one side, and the other side is like a stage that bands play. They have a mechanical bull in there. Ooh. They have a karaoke night on one night. Yeah. It's a fun thing. Yes.

[00:31:23] And it makes sense to have me, John Reed, perform at a comedy club that celebrates Western, Southern, redneck-y culture, comics, roadhouse. You got a bull. You got people dressed up in cowboy hats and stuff like that. And barbecue. And they have barbecue on the menu. And I – but I asked the other comic who was from there. Yeah. And I'm thinking – and we just had a discussion about I have my own barbecue sauce. And I said, well, what should I order on this menu? He goes, oh, barbecue.

[00:31:52] And he goes, yeah, never mind. You're not going to like it. This barbecue is not real barbecue. You're not – it's not real. He's like, you're going to know this is not good barbecue because you obviously know what good barbecue is. Okay. I don't even want you to waste your time on our barbecue. He said stick with the seafood, like lobster rolls, you know. Go native. Get the stuff that's like meant to be up in that area. Clam chowder. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that kind of stuff. So barbecue in Connecticut. Exactly. Not their thing. Now, okay, but let me back up.

[00:32:21] So this whole casino – Yeah. It's kind of gone for a little bit of a western – No, no, not the whole casino. Just this area. Comics Roadhouse. Comics Roadhouse is just inside the casino. Yeah. Is what's kind of gone full tilt into western, southern western kind of – Sure. Whatever cowboy, you know. But the crowd showing up on that Friday night – Yeah, they don't dress up in that stuff. Wasn't into that. They're just there for the comedy. Okay. It had nothing to do with the culture.

[00:32:49] They were not interested in southern culture. Not Friday night. Western culture. Okay. Right. So basically, these were people that were there at the casino for some other reason. Yes. Somehow it's like, okay, the thing that we wanted to plan to do on Friday night fell through. Yes. There was some event, some performance that was planned. They get spillover from another. We are like, all right, well, we're here. We want to be entertained. We don't know who this guy is. But –

[00:33:15] We've never researched anything below the D.C. area of the United States. We don't know anything. We don't know the difference between – We don't know nothing pop culture outside of our region. Yeah. And here comes somebody up on stage. Oh, fine. We'll give them a shot. Yeah. And that's where you went. Yeah. Okay. Ultimately, I got them, but it took me a long time. But, you know, it's – they have – because the casino is so huge, they have tons of other entertainment going on all at once inside of this casino. So I'm at the comedy club.

[00:33:45] Next to me is a big theater performance hall type thing where gigantic stars play. Okay. And they had – Alice Cooper was there one night. Yeah. So you had a lot of people dressed up in Alice Cooper attire. That was an older crowd. That was Thursday night. And then you get people that are there before or after that are lingering or maybe people who didn't get the tickets but just wanted to come. And they come into the show. And Thursday night was great. Yeah.

[00:34:13] I'm thinking, well, Alice Cooper, I'm not really rocked, but I'm not young. I'm old enough to – There are some intersecting circles of your audience that intersect to some degree with Alice Cooper fans. Yeah. Now, the night I didn't do so hot, as I'm walking from my hotel room to the comedy club in this casino – I never had to go outdoors one time.

[00:34:47] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And it's girls that are anywhere from like 13 to 18. Right. And they're all wearing their little cowboy boots and their little sundresses and their Daisy Dukes and their cowboy hats. God, that sounds horrible. And they don't know me. They don't care about me. Sure, right. And I don't want to be around them. I'm just trying to get from – And this sounds horrible, John. It is horrible. Yeah. And so when I get to the club, I mean, there was less people than Thursday. Okay.

[00:35:14] And I think the ones that were there were dragged there by their daughter to go see this thing. And they didn't want to leave her there. So they said, well, we'll just pop into the comedy club. Oh, I see. So you were like the – that one particular night, your club, the club where you were performing. And I know this is a very rare occurrence, but it was just filled with people that were looking for a comfortable – To chill an hour. A place to see it with a comfortable seating. Yes.

[00:35:44] And I could get a drink. Yeah. And I could just relax while my teenage daughter is bebopping with some country star in the next place over. Okay. I believe that's kind of what happened. That makes sense. That totally makes sense. That justifies everything that is named John. It makes perfect sense. I get it. All right. Let's get to some other AI stuff. Yeah. We got to talk about some news stuff. Do you want me to read a comment first or do you want to – Yeah.

[00:36:13] Go ahead and do a comment. Okay. It's going to take me a little bit to dig into what we want to talk about. Well, as I'm going over this comment, I want to tease the audience. Google just announced a new AI platform called Veo or Veo. Veo? Yeah. V-E-O. I don't know if it's Veo or Veo, but yeah. And it was all over my TikTok threads of these videos that people had made using Google's new AI thing called Veo or Veo, whatever it is.

[00:36:44] So that's what we're going to talk about here in a second. But first, I'm going to read this comment from our boy, Shane Flint. Hashtag Shane Flint Outdoors. We love Shane. Thank you, buddy, for always leaving a comment. Again, if you want us to give you a shout out on this show, just write a comment and we'll do it. It's that simple. Absolutely. Shane said, just amazed at how good AI wrote both of the eulogies. Yeah. Made me choke up a little. Same here. Same here, Shane. We both choked up.

[00:37:14] Both were really good. Your conversation about HBO, HBO Max did bring back fond memories of my childhood. It was such a big deal to get to watch a movie on HBO. I know. If my parents were in the living room when the warnings came up for nudity or sexual explicit, I made sure I didn't make eye contact with them. Yeah.

[00:37:36] That way they wouldn't make me go to my room and hopefully just let me cover my eyes. LOL. Speaking of Star Wars and AI, this is a good question. Have you seen the latest about AI-generated Star Wars and the buzz around it? Pretty controversial. Looking forward to the next episode. Well, that's great. That leads us into what we're going to talk about. Video made by AI.

[00:38:08] How long will it be before we are watching a fully AI-generated movie that was written by AI and created by AI? You know, maybe all you got to do to write a movie now is just know what to type in, what the prompts are, you know? And you could take a fully animated, a fully worked out screenplay, a script. Because in the screenplays, in the script are prompts.

[00:38:37] Yeah. Where it says this is an exterior shot. Yeah. Sunny day outdoors in front of a barn. So you're describing it in the screenplay. AI could take one of these screenplays and turn it into a movie. And then you can just tweak it as you go. I mean, it's over, Alan. I, yeah. Like, I've been watching since you, since we saw the news on this whole VO, Google model. I mean, other companies have had models that allow you to create video.

[00:39:06] Like, even OpenAI, which is the chat GPT company, has had Sora, which is their video creation tool for a while. Sora cannot do audio with the video. I think it was part of the distinction. This VO is now video creation, but it also can have audio with your video. So it is a true full audio video thing, not just video only.

[00:39:30] And, you know, of course, they're all going to get better, each one that comes out, where supposedly the Google one now VO version 3 is, like, really good. It's also, right now, really expensive. I mean, I found out that you've got to spend $250 a month to have access to it, to be able to go in and generate stuff. Which, I mean, you know, if you're doing this and you've got, like, a real project that you're working on and you need the video, I mean, $250 is probably worth it.

[00:39:56] But for just me wanting to just, you know, dick around on it, it's a lot of money to plunk down just to play with AI video. But I've seen some examples of stuff put together. I mean, I did go in and do a free, like, an initial trial, and it gave me, like, a 10-second video. I said, give me a video of a cat chasing a yellow canary bird through a backyard. Right. And it, I mean, it looked really good.

[00:40:21] I mean, it wouldn't let me save it because I wasn't paying for it or anything, but I at least saw the video it generated. It generated, like, within 30 seconds. Yeah. It gave me, like, a 20-second video. It looked pretty good. The cat did some weird movements with his legs as it was walking through the yard. It looked a little weird. But, I mean, for, you know, just the first blush. Close. Did it look like it was animated? Did it look cartoony? Did it look realistic? No, it looked realistic.

[00:40:49] But it's just if you watched it, you're like, all right, no cat really moves that way. So it was a little odd. But, I mean, it definitely showed that, you know, for a free version of it to try out for a 20-second video, like, first blush. I'm like, that's pretty impressive that it came up with what it did. So, yeah, I mean, this thing's going to, all this stuff's going to rock, John. I mean, think about it. So, like you just said, you take a screenplay, which is very descriptive. There's a lot of instructions on it.

[00:41:19] Sounds like that's all this platform needs is, like, you feed in, say, okay, here's what I wrote. Make this into a video. And it's like, I want a 90-minute film of this screenplay. I mean, I think that's where we're going to see things going. Sean mentioned AI or Star Wars AI. Oh, yeah. There's an 11-minute Star Wars AI film that somebody made using nothing but AI. I got it right here. Oh, wow.

[00:41:47] And I was watching some of it earlier, too. And it's, I mean, it's kind of crazy good. Okay, a long time ago on a galaxy far, far away. So far, it looks legit. Yeah. It starts out just like, there we go. Star Wars The Ghost's Apprentice. Yeah. So, we're, like, watching this video. I mean, it looks like Star Wars to begin with. Then we got this cool, like, you know, spaceship flying through asteroids. There's two people, characters.

[00:42:17] These are AI-generated people. And they look, like. They look people. They look believable. Yeah, pretty much. So far, I wouldn't say that's not a human. Was that a Jawa with the cloak over them? Or was that a Jedi? I don't know. You know, the Jawa, the little people. Yeah, yeah. In the original Star Wars. Could be the one. So, so far, I can't tell this is AI. Did it tell you who made it? Like, what AI platform? I don't know the platform. Let's see. We got some people walking. That's always a telltale sign for me.

[00:42:46] It's like, when you see people walking, can you tell if it's AI or not? Okay, now that, the mouth movement. It looks a little video game-ish. Yeah. Right. It looks a little bit like a video game at this point. Yep. That's where it's suffering right now. Yeah. The emotion in the face. They don't have it down pat yet. Whatever they use for this. Yeah. And it will improve. I mean, it gets this good.

[00:43:13] And I think you said this was like four months ago this guy made this. So, it's not even using. Wow. Okay, so it's not even. I mean, tools are advancing so quickly. Yeah. It could be something even better now. Right. But you're right. I think that's still where AI has a challenge. Let me show you. Okay. Yeah. Not to cut you off. No, no. Go ahead. But one of the things I wanted you to see, because this is what I was doing in my hotel room when I was avoiding people in Connecticut. In my hotel room, isolating myself. Right.

[00:43:40] I was watching all these TikTok videos that people made using VOVO3. Okay. All right. And the theme was creating these, because these are all, the people inside of these videos are generated by AI. All right. So, none of the people that I'm going to be seeing in these videos are real. They're all generated by the Google VO platform that just came out. And they're talking about, did you hear that we're not real, that we're actually just prompts?

[00:44:09] Oh, they're kind of acknowledging it. That whole theme is funny. Yeah. There are people that were created that aren't real, but they don't believe they're not real. Okay. Does that make sense? Oh, wow. It's like Inception level deep things going on. Hang on. Let me mute this other thing. Get out of here. Oh, is that you? I had that playing at the same time. Yeah. All right. Okay. Here we go. We're not just AI prompts. Okay. We're done here. Have you heard about the prompt theory going viral on TikTok? Prompt theory? No. What's that?

[00:44:38] The theory claims we're all just AI. AI? No, I'm a Taurus. You know, none of this is real, right? It's all just AI? Yeah. I know all about the prompt theory. It's true. For sure. No, I was joking. You might actually be crazy. Bro, my wife thinks we're just prompts. Oh, brother. She must think she lives on a spinning waterfall also. Please change the prompt. I don't know where I am. Wow. Isn't that crazy?

[00:45:09] Oh, my gosh. Okay. This... That brings up a whole nother... A whole nother thing. But that looked real... Did that not look like real people? No, no. All of those looked incredibly real. Yeah. Yeah. If I had seen those videos naturally, I never would have thought they were generated. I am assuming they used VOVEO 3 to make this. And not like... And not have told us that they're actually real people. And like they're really actually real people pretending like they're being made by VO. I don't know.

[00:45:36] But that's how good it is if you're at home thinking, we can't tell. Yeah. Right now. Can we just talk about what this could all mean? Yeah. Because... Look, we all knew this kind of video capability was coming. Okay? You remember like a year ago, they were like... We were talking on this very show and we were watching samples of video being made by AI. Smith eating spaghetti. And it's like, all right, it looks weird. It looked bad.

[00:46:05] You could tell it was fake. However, there were some things in it. It's like, all right, it's getting there. I mean, it's figuring some things out. Okay. This is... If what we're seeing is true here, John. Yeah. That's just one of many I could show you. It's figured it out. It's got AI stand-up comedy on here too. It's figured it out. Yeah. It knows how to make people look real in AI. All right. So then I still say, I mean, at what point do we have fake videos being put out of politicians

[00:46:36] saying or doing things they shouldn't be doing? It's going to be incredibly hard to tell it apart. And in today's world, all you need to throw out is like one instance of somebody looking a certain way or saying a certain thing in a video. Even if it gets disproved later on that was fake, the damage is done. It's out there. You have totally just like screwed somebody's life. I see two things in this scenario. All right. One, it's going to get surreal.

[00:47:02] We're not going to be able to tell a difference, which means there's going to be a saturation point where everyone's going to know that you can't trust anything unless you're standing in front of it and talking to it. Like a human being. Like right now, me talking to you. I can touch you. I can feel you. That's the only thing we're going to be able to trust anymore. Okay.

[00:47:20] So anything online, so what that means is anything on TV, anything in the movies, anything online, anything on a screen, anything on a screen, you have to now assume that there's a 50-50 chance that is not real, which means your trust level is going to go way down. You're not going to trust the news. You're not going to trust anything that way. So that's gone, the trust, the believability.

[00:47:49] And what that's also going to do is make it easier for people who are doing shady things to have an alibi. Yeah. And it's going to make people who are innocent look guilty. So just like how some people now are claiming that if something shows up online and it's like, well, that was AI. They're already using it as an example. Well, I did it early just by saying fake news. Right.

[00:48:16] So now they're actually giving a true technology behind it to say, well, obviously that's AI. Yeah. That video of me beating up my girlfriend, it was obviously AI. Right. There's no way that was real. Yeah. And it's like before they could have said it was fake and we had tools to be able to say, well, no, we analyzed the video. The video is real. Yeah. You really did this. Because now with this, it's like. We don't know. I don't know. Are they going to be able to. How.

[00:48:43] What is the process for determining is that video real or not? Like if they. If. If that video you just showed me got put on the news. Yeah. Is there. I just. I'm curious. I'm asking out loud. Like how would you determine if it was fake or not? And who's. Who's the one determining it? So is it up to me, the viewer, to decide whether or not I believe it's real based on who's giving it to me?

[00:49:07] Or is it up to the people who are putting it out for us that they have vetted it properly and that they even know if it's true or not true? Yeah. I mean, lots of implications can happen. But I don't. I kind of see it as the death of. Facts. Facts. The death of. Legitimate news. Like it's all going down because you can't trust anything. So. All right.

[00:49:38] I. You know, if I'm going to get my news from somewhere. Yeah. Typically, if I read something from a trusted news source, I believe it. If I see a talking head on TV, a newscaster or somebody hosting a news show, whatever. I tend to believe what I'm hearing them say because I assume it's being vetted. I assume it's being researched and all that.

[00:50:02] You assume that based on the trust that you have garnered over the years of following this person or this news source has never really steered you wrong. For the most part. Yeah. But now I'm wondering if they can generate video that looks like a human, a true human being doing things. And now with audio and talking and all that. You know, at what point is it going to be where we're just going to have.

[00:50:29] AI generated video bots delivering us news, delivering us information. In other words, we don't need anchors anymore. We don't need, you know, who's the guys. Yeah. Those people could be gone. Well, yeah. That's what starts to make me wonder. It's like all the jobs. All the talking heads. That would be no longer necessary. I mean. When you've got this. Think about it. If you want to keep going either up or the ladder or through the wormhole, depending on how you look at it.

[00:50:57] Whoever owns the news stations. You've seen clips of this probably on Colbert Report or John Stewart where it's like, all right, here's the talking points today. And they show clips of all these local news stations saying the exact same thing. Not even the same subject matter, but the same sentence over and over again. Right? Well, it's a rainy day outside.

[00:51:26] Don't forget your rain boots. And they're all. So someone has directed them to say this. And that's the person who's ahead of all of it. Whoever that may be. I'm not going to say I know who it is. But whoever owns the news. Now think of this. Instead of having to have all those people memorize and say the one thing, now all you've got to do is just tell all your fake prompts. You know, your robots, your fake digitally created AI newscasters. You just type it in. And they'll say it.

[00:51:56] And they can look different. They can sound different. They can have different accents, different languages. And it'll be much easier to control a narrative for people who own the news. Yes. Good or bad. And the people who are going to get the most influenced by any of this stuff are our older population. Yes. People who already believe in anything they see on TV. You're right.

[00:52:21] So then you could technically control the mindset of a whole big portion of our population. I would say I'm 53, and I know people my age who would fall for this. So let's say 40 and up. What do you think? Is 42 young? 45 and up? Yeah, about 45 and up. We'll be the age group of people who are going to get hoodwinked, whatever. Right, right. The most. The most.

[00:52:50] By AI. It's not a universal. Like, I'm 52. I feel like I'm less likely to get hoodwinked by things. But I also know some 20, 30-year-olds that will probably be easily influenced. That's true. Many people. So I think a good median point. Like, 45 or so. It's like, eh. Give and take. Yeah, chances are higher. You know, your education level and the environment. It's a little bit what you grew up with, too. Like, you know, if you grew up on the internet, and like the internet's all you know, I think,

[00:53:18] and that's the only place you've ever gotten information, I think you're a little more, you're a little less trusting. Yeah. Okay? So that's why I think people younger than us are like, um, you know, I don't know if I buy everything I read. Because they grew up on the internet. They grew up with the chance that there may not be good facts. Right. People older than us grew up trusting the guy who's doing the 7 o'clock news on the network. Yeah. It's like, eh. No, Walter Cronkite. Walter Cronkite. What did Walter Cronkite say?

[00:53:46] If he said this, that's what's happening. You can take it to the bank. Yep. So I think that's where the dividing line is. It's like, once you lost those trusted people you're hearing news from, you're going to, the people younger than that are going to be a little more, uh, a little more hesitant to believe the truth. So. From news. What does that make, what is the world going to look like? Because I remember, uh, I had a professor at NC State who said, nothing changes faster than the rate of change. Mm-hmm.

[00:54:15] And we're seeing it real time. I mean, in less than a year, we're already looking at video that we can't tell is real or not. Correct. And so that was less than a year? Maybe a year? Yeah. I mean, it was about a year ago. I think we were watching video and being like, uh, you know, it's not great, but it's close. It's getting there. So imagine what, what, let's make a prediction right now. Yeah. Today is May the, as we're talking is May the 28th. Yeah. 2025. 2025.

[00:54:42] What will our lives look like? May the 28th, 2030. 2030. So in five years. All right. Five years. Will this exist? If it does, are we doing it or are we writing it and just having our avatars do it? So on that note, yes, John, I was actually going to kind of end our recording today with a little bit of a note tease next time because another technology that was released, and this

[00:55:10] dovetails right near your question, you asked about what it's going to be like in five years. Google put out a, a, another product called, or has enhanced another program called notebook LM. The idea with this is that you can take any information on a certain subject, dump it into this model. Okay. Here's the deal. When you, when you give information to chat GPT or to any other, uh, AI bot and you say, Hey, uh, write me something about this.

[00:55:40] It's using your information, but it's also using stuff it finds on the internet. Yeah. Which may or may not be true. Correct. Notebook LM is this idea where I can say, all right, I want to create a, a chat about this one topic and here I'm going to funnel all this information to you about it and you create whatever I need from this information. Like if I, if I just dump a whole bunch of books and articles and things about a certain

[00:56:05] topic and say, all right, I want to, I want to know all about the Catawba tribe here. And I've got all this information about the Catawba tribe. I'm going to funnel into you now and you give me answers. You're only using this information that I gave you on this topic. Okay. Don't worry about going out on the internet and trying to pull in other stuff. Cause I don't know if that's legit or not. I want you to use just this. So that's all kind of cool. But what you can do from it is it will allow you to create an audio overview of the information

[00:56:34] you've given it on a certain topic. And that audio interview can sound like a podcast. And I've heard examples of it, John. It's two people talking like they're doing a podcast on that topic. But it's probably a lot more informed, right? Because it's pulling information from. Well, it's informative. It's accurate. And that is pulling information. But it's being voiced by two people. Like they're having a conversation.

[00:57:04] Like, hey, today we're going to talk about this. And hey, did you happen to hear that if you, that the Catawba tribe kind of started like this? It's like, oh no, I didn't hear that. I'd always heard it was like this. It's like, well, no, actually it's like, this is the real deal. It's like a podcast conversation. They're pitching it as it's an automated podcast on a topic. So like, for example, I think I haven't listened to this. This is a automatic AI generated conversation.

[00:57:35] Or at least help you finally finish that research project you've been putting off. Exactly. It's like trying to drink from a fire hose, you know? I love learning new things, but who has the time to actually go through all of it? Wouldn't it be amazing if there was some kind of like AI that could do the reading for you? And then just like tell you the good stuff. Well, what if I told you that's exactly what we're diving into today? Seriously. Yeah. It's called Notebook LM and it's Google's latest AI assistant.

[00:58:04] So they're doing an example of this commercial product, but that is what this tool does. Yeah. Okay. It generates a podcast. So back to your question, John, will we be doing this in five years? No, probably not. We will not be. Will there be two people that maybe sound like AI John Reap and AI Alan Jackson having a conversation about AI and bringing in other stories? Yeah. Probably so. It probably won't be us though. Okay.

[00:58:33] How can we save our job? Let's just say that. Well, that's true. Okay. How do we save our jobs? You're right. Let's pretend you and I are making a lot of money at this. Yeah. I do worry about this because I mean, it's not even just the podcasting. It's like anything I do for a living right now can totally be automated within a couple years. I know some other people in my life that are worried about it as well. Okay. Creators. Yeah, yeah.

[00:58:57] In fact, John Heffron sent me a clip of him talking to an AI co-host of a podcast and he created this girl that's probably 40s, mixed race, and it's him talking to her and she's just laughing and bouncing ideas off of him. And it looks real. So he's already done it. I don't know if it's the same platform. So he's got a video, he has a video co-host. Yeah.

[00:59:22] And she's just like being his kind of podcast co-host, his Ed McMahon. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of just laughing and interjecting. Let me see if I can look it up because we need to get John on this podcast because he's a lot more, I think he might be more into AI than you and I are at this moment because he's putting all of his eggs in that basket. I hate what we're doing here, John, because last two weeks we spent talking about our deaths. Yeah.

[00:59:50] Now we're talking about the deaths of our careers. Like where our careers are going. It's like, I should not be walking away from our episodes depressed. Yeah. But I kind of am now. It's like, oh my God, it's all just kind of hitting me right now. I'm trying to think of how we save it. So here's what will happen. There's always a backlash. You know, it's all a pendulum, right? When we swing too far to the left, we always swing back to the right.

[01:00:17] And we just, that's what we do as a society, as a nation, as humans. When you get too much of one thing, you get tired of it, then you want something different. So what's going to happen? Is there going to be, the problem is it's not going to be enough for everybody. It's just going to be the big names, the ones with real personality. It's going to be like a Joe Rogan. It's going to be like people of that caliber are going to be the ones to survive. People beneath them, they're going to go away.

[01:00:44] So you're really only going to have a couple that are going to stay. But then there'll be some that rebel and will flourish out of just sheer rebellion for AI. Like when you say rebel, I mean, you're talking like Terminator type of thing where it's like the machines. We have to rise up against the machines. So there'll be like people who are like fighting against this AI culture.

[01:01:10] And there'll be a whole underground of, oh, I get it. I got it, John. I got it. Okay. So AI is taking over. There's like a few big personalities who basically control all media and all entertainment that's being generated by AI. Because that's the thing. If you can't beat it, you want to control it. Right. Okay. So there'll be a few people who are controlling all of this. Yeah. There'll be one person who is controlling all comedy. Right.

[01:01:40] I'm generating all comedy. I've created all comedy bots. Every source of comedy that you have in your life, people, is coming from bots I control. I control the comedy world. Yeah. Okay. Then you got people who are controlling movies and you got people controlling other entertainment. So then there's us. Yes. Who are the freedom fighters? The freedom fighters. Okay. We're encampments. We're like figuring out. We live in the sewage systems. We're marketing natural stuff.

[01:02:10] Yeah. Like, all right, who wants to rebel against the AI world? We'll come to this underground comedy bunker and we're going to like have underground comedy by real people. Yep. Comedians. You can't have your phone in there. You have to check your phone at the door. You go through like a, it's like a big Faraday cage where like no electronics work inside this big box ran type of thing. Did you call it a Faraday cage? I did. I kind of pulled it. That's like a box that like suppresses all electrical signals inside of it. Oh, yeah.

[01:02:38] So it does become like a protected area where you can't use your cell phones and all that. I think I used that right. Oh, I don't know. I'm assuming you did. Oh, I thought you were checking me there. No, no, no. Okay, no. You're just trusting me on that. I'm looking for this John Herford clip as you're talking. Oh, yeah. Okay, that's fine. I can't find it. Like, you know, dirt brown clothes. We all like look like we, you know, it's like the matrix. They're like the real world of the matrix. We're like, we're all like living in caves. Yes.

[01:03:04] And it's like, but we have these underground comedy and then you go see a play because you want to see an underground, like real natural play performing on stage. And it's like, that's where humans. Yeah. It's humans only. And there's going to be a time where now it's cell phones. There are some comedy clubs that are like, nope. When you come to this show, we're putting your phone in a bag and we're locking it up and you'll get it. All right. At the end of the show. Right. No phones. Now it's going to be no robots. Yeah. No robots.

[01:03:34] No robots. You're going to have a robot friend. There's got to be a scanner to like when you walk in the door to make sure it's not a robot or you don't have a robot on you or something like that. Right. No electronics. You're lying. I'm just picturing like there was the Mad Max movie that had Tina Turner in it. It was Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Yep. That's totally what I'm picturing. Yes. Some of that mixed with, I'm also picturing a little bit of Terminator because of the rise of the machines and also a little bit of Judge Dredd. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Remember Judge Dredd? I do. I do remember that.

[01:04:03] There was people who lived underground. Yes. That were rebelling against the future stuff. Okay. Uh-huh. And I think it was led by that comedian, Dennis Leary. I think Dennis Leary was in Judge Dredd. He was leading the rebellion tribe. No, that's the thing. I kind of, I mean, look, being part of a rebel. I mean, we're Star Wars guys. We love Star Wars. Being part of a rebel alliance would be awesome. That's what, okay. So knowing that, now that we know that, we agree that that's where we're headed. Yeah.

[01:04:33] Why don't we go ahead and start the name of the rebellion? I think we should go ahead and start it now. Yes. It has to be something about natural, something about human, natural entertainment. Yeah. Okay? Let me ask AI. Yeah, okay. Hi. Hi, AI. If we wanted to create a subculture to fight against AI, what would we call this group? Yeah. Okay. So I was wrong. It wasn't Judge Dredd. It was Demolition Man.

[01:05:03] Oh, yeah. But very similar. Yeah. And they both starred Sylvester Stallone at one point. Yeah. We got this speech right here. I'm the only one. Because I like to think. I like to read. I like to freedom of speech. I like freedom of choice. I'm the kind of guy who likes to sit with a greasy spoon and wonder, gee, should I have the keyboard and steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with a side order of gravy fries? I want high cholesterol. I want to eat bacon and butter and buckets of cheese, okay? I want to smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section. I want to run through the streets naked with green jello all over my body reading Playboy

[01:05:33] Magazine. Why? Because I suddenly might feel the need to, okay, pal? I've seen the food. You know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas drinking a banana broccoli shakes thinking I'm an Oscar Mayer weed. Dennis Leary called it. So Dennis Leary is our... He's our leader. He's our leader. That's the model of our leader. So now that I've looked that up, we have to find out what was his name in this movie. Yeah. Dennis Leary character. Character in Demolition Man, which is a good movie, by the way. I love Demolition Man.

[01:06:03] Let me go. I can go back and watch that. I'm watching that tonight. 1995 film Judge Dredd, Dennis Leary plays a character named Edgar Friendly. He's a member of the crew on the spaceship Justice One. Wait a minute. It's a different one. I went to Judge Dredd because I... But Dennis Leary was in Judge Dredd too? Apparently. This is what I'm just discovering. This is insane. This is what this podcast is for. Moments like this. Our hero is going to be Dennis Leary.

[01:06:32] Now, in Judge Dredd, he was a member of the crew on the spaceship Justice One where they are searching for the Judge Child who has been abducted by the Angel Gang. In this film, Judge Hershey, played by Diane Lane, is also a character and she also searches for the Judge Child. The film is based on the comic book series Judge Dredd. Now, I'm going to type in Demolition Man and Dennis Leary.

[01:07:01] But it is looking like Dennis Leary is our de facto leader because of these roles he's played in these two similar films. Yeah, there's a combination of both. And he's kind of done it already. He's walked the walk. He did the method learning and training to be the method actor for these roles. So he knows how to lead a revolution. Right. A sci-fi, anti-AI, anti-robotic rebellion. He knows how to do this. Right. Now, I'm kind of learning about his character here.

[01:07:31] Demolition Man. So his name. Okay. I don't know which one was correct because now it's telling me that his name in Demolition Man was also Edgar Friendly. I wonder if these two movies have an overlap. Wait a minute. Okay. Hold on. So Dennis Leary, he was Edgar whatever. Friendly. In Demolition Man. That is accurate. Okay. Was he in Judge Dredd? Because I'm having a hard time finding that on his listing. Judge Dredd.

[01:08:01] All right. He might have lost some points in being our leader because, I mean. Okay. Judge Dredd. I was hoping he was in both sci-fi movies. I could be wrong. All right. So we got Judge Dredd. You got Sylvester Stallone, Armand Asante, Rob Schneider, Diane Lane, Joan Chin, Max Val something. Rob Schneider was in Judge Dredd. Rob Schneider was in Judge Dredd. I remember that. Okay. Christopher. I don't think he is, John. Okay. Good. All right. That's fine.

[01:08:30] Well, that at least covers up that confusion. Look, we're just kind of focused on his role in Demolition Man. Right. He is speaking the truth in that clip you just played. Correct. So what we're going to do is find out more about the character of Edgar Friendly. Okay. Edgar Friendly, he says, I'm no leader. I do what I have to do. Sometimes people come out with, sometimes people come with me.

[01:08:58] All I want to do is bury some character up to his neck and shit. All right. All right. I've got an idea. I want to get some speeches by him. Edgar Friendly. Real quick. I know we're running close on time here, but I want to do one quick thing. I want to see if he can do this. All right. If I'm going to chat GPT right now, my little, my friend, Mac, I hate that I'm plotting his

[01:09:25] own demise in this conversation, but that's what's going to happen. So here we go. Hey, Mac, if I were wanting to start a revolution, kind of a rebellion group to combat the future of AI and technology. And I wanted to use Dennis Leary's character of Edgar Friendly from the movie Demolition Man as our model and our inspiration and leader.

[01:09:54] What do you think would be a good name for this revolution group? Okay. As you're told, here we go. He's working on it. Let's think about this. If we're channeling Edgar Friendly's vibe, scrappy, anti-establishment, and all about human freedom, we want a name that captures that rebellious spirit and defiance against tech dominance.

[01:10:19] How about something like the Free Underground or Humanity's Vanguard? They've got that gritty grassroots. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. Please continue. No worries. I was just going to say that names like that also reflect Edgar Friendly's spirit of independence and the fight to keep humanity at the forefront. They've got a nice ring to them. Don't you think? I liked... I liked... What was the one with the human something? It was Humanity's Vanguard.

[01:10:49] I like Vanguard. I do. Vanguard's a cool word. Humanity's Vanguard. That sounds pretty good. A little wordy. What was the one in... The one where they always wear that one mask? It was a movie. Vendetta. V for Vendetta. Yeah, V for Vendetta. Yeah. Vendetta Vanguard. Maybe that's why I like Vanguard because it reminds me of Vendetta. Maybe just call it Vanguard. Just the Vanguards. The Vanguardians. The Vangu... John. John.

[01:11:19] Well, the Vanguardians. Did I do it? You did it. We did it, buddy. All right. So the Vanguardians needs to be the name of our underground human-only culture where we have comedy, stand-up comedy that's not AI-generated. Yep. Nothing's AI-generated. I mean, we have comedy. We can have music. We can have actors.

[01:11:43] Basically, it's where we can have our art forms without any AI intervention. Yeah. Now that we're saying all this, I'm also envisioning a world where there are going to be like theme parks that you can escape to that is free from technology, where you're going to go step back in time to 1960. All right. Can I just say I love theme parks? Yep.

[01:12:08] But I'm a little concerned about a theme park that uses no technology to help regulate it from a safety or efficiency standpoint. I guess what I'm... Forget the word theme park. Okay. Focus on like a resort. Oh, like a historical reenactment site. Yeah. Like a village that's no technology. Now, Hart Square here in our own area is like that, where it's like meant to look like the 1800s. Yeah.

[01:12:38] And you go and there's no technology and it's like, okay, all right. You're not talking about theme park with like a ride. Because I don't want to get on a roller coaster that doesn't have some form of technology helping keep it safe. We can put a date on this. Like when did AI come to life? When did it become conscious? That's a good question. Whatever that is, is when we'll say nothing past this date can exist at this theme park. Hey, Mac, when did AI truly get born?

[01:13:04] What was the date of AI officially starting? Hey, Alan. The concept of artificial intelligence has been around for quite a while. But a key milestone often considered the birth of AI is the Dartmouth Conference in the summer of 1956.

[01:13:24] That's when a group of researchers, including John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon, together at Dartmouth College and basically laid the groundwork for AI as a field of study. Hey, Mac, let me interrupt you. So how about instead, is there a more recent date where when AI became more commonplace, kind of a milestone of when AI became a little more integrated into our lives?

[01:13:56] Sure thing. A major milestone for AI becoming more integrated into everyday life happened around the mid-2010s. One key moment was the release of virtual assistants like Apple's Siri in 2011, followed by Amazon's Alexa in 2014. That's our key. I think 2010. We're going to freeze our society as of 2010. Whatever society was like in 2010, that's what we're keeping it at.

[01:14:25] That would work for me. Without him telling me that, I was thinking, well, when did chat GPT and when did that come out? That would be the date for me. But I see what he's saying there. He's saying like Siri and some of those things. I think that's kind of the early. Alexa, talking to it. Yeah, yeah. Alexa, I think, is kind of the – whenever Alexa started, that's kind of our thing. So about 2010. Yeah. So if we're creating a culture, it's like we hearken back to the year 2010. Yeah. That is the world we're in.

[01:14:53] So we still have a lot of cool technology at our disposal. Yeah. I mean, we're still playing – we're still watching – I mean, we can play all the Atari if we want. We're like watching movies on Blu-ray disc. That's all cool. We're still playing – yeah, we're still playing video games. Yeah. But it's just – we just don't let the AI come in. Yeah. No AI. I like that. That's going to be the Airbnb of the future. That's going to be vacation destinations. Oh, right. Yeah. People are going to escape from all the technology. Oh, yeah. So it's not even just a rebellious thing.

[01:15:23] We can just totally make money off of this. There you go. We create our own – I'm saying theme park because you can still have rides because it's – we have rides now. Rides in 2010 are totally safe and fine, so we're good. Like Carowinds, there are a long time. So you can just go throwback to Carowinds, 1985. So we have a throwback world. We call it – we're calling ourselves the Vanguard. Vanguard so far. Although I did come up with some other names. Okay. That GPT did if you want to hear them. Right? Right? And it gave me like 20.

[01:15:52] I'm just going to rattle these off. We both like Vanguardians. We do. Vanguardians is my favorite right now. Yeah. It gave me two different categories. Okay. It gave me serious and cinematic or witty and satirical. Oh, yeah. Give me the serious ones. What does it give? The human override. Code breakers. That seems – a lot of people have used that. Yeah. The analog alliance. Okay. Well, analog is a good word. Yeah. Basically saying like no technology thing. So, yeah. Okay. Analog alliance.

[01:16:23] Project Unplug. Unplug series on MTV. The circuit rebellion. Okay. Yeah. The carbon uprising. Carbon. Oh, no. I kind of like that. Carbon. Carbon. Carbon-based fire. Yeah. The carbon uprising. Carbon code breakers. Put those two together. Yeah. How about the flesh protocol? I do like the word flesh in there. Yeah. Yeah. Echo resistance.

[01:16:52] Echo. The null sector. Yeah. The last patch. I don't know. I don't even understand that. Now, here's some witty ones. Okay. The 404 not founders. All right. I get that. That's the error message you get if you go to a web page that doesn't exist anymore or is like not working. It's like a 404 error. It's an error. So, that's kind of funny. That could be our number. 404. 404 is the key. It's like, yeah. The web's not working. Yeah. It's like. We are 404.

[01:17:22] We're 404 in it today. I like that big number that we have. Yeah. Control, alt, resist. Oh. Okay. I like that. I do like that as well. That's good. Terms and conditions rebels. Terms and conditions rebels. That's wordy. I get what you're trying to say. It's like disagreeing to all the terms and conditions that technology asks you to do. Yeah. The reboot crew. Hmm. The Skynet skeptics. Hmm.

[01:17:51] Well, that's being skipped above Skynet and we are kind of saying Skynet. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Captcha Crusaders. All right. I get that. Captcha. Yeah. Captcha is the little robot game you have to play to prove you're a human when you visit a website sometimes. The glitch mob. Okay. That's all right. I get that. Modem burners. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. The no cloud crowd. That's dumb.

[01:18:20] I cannot believe that Vanguardians is like the name you came up with, John, and it's perfect. What was it? It started with something Vanguard. It gave you human? Yeah. It was a human Vanguard. Human Vanguard. I think that was- What does the word Vanguard mean? Vanguard is like you're a pioneer. You're kind of like starting something new. Okay. So, yeah, it works. It works. The Vanguardians. The Vanguardians. So, are we starting with, I mean, what's human about Vanguardians or non-

[01:18:48] What is resistance about it? You know, the- Yeah, I don't know. It's just a cool word. I like Vanguardians. It's cool. It's just a cool word. Well, we got some stuff to figure out. How about this, everybody? Why don't you go ask AI to create an image of our leader? Oh, yeah. Who's the leader of the Vanguardians? Now, we've already kind of basing it off of Dennis Leary from- We are from Edgar Friendly from the movie Demolition Man. Yeah.

[01:19:18] So, maybe how about everyone ask your AI to create a photo of Edgar Friendly, leader of the Vanguardians, a new rebel group against technology and artificial intelligence. Yes, exactly. Use those words. Use those words. And see what yours comes up with. Yep. And then send them to me at JohnReap on X. And I'll reshare it.

[01:19:47] And then we'll talk about this podcast and leave us a comment on any platform. Rate, review, subscribe, and share. And I've had a good time. Alan, thank you. Same here. Again, it got more depressing as we went along. And I'm trying to figure out how I got to get in some high spirits for next time we talk because I did get some feedback from some people who listened to our last couple episodes. They enjoy it. But- But it got heavy. It got heavy. And it's like, I'm afraid we might have gotten a little dark in our thinking there too.

[01:20:16] But luckily, I think we've come up with a way to combat the darkness. I mean, think of this. We just gave you an idea to go watch an old movie, Demolition Man. Demolition Man, classic. Go relive that classic sci-fi thriller with the one and only Sylvester Stallone. And Mr. Wesley Snipes. Wesley Snipes and Dennis Leary. And Sandra Bullock. There we go. It's a great movie. That's a good homework. Now, Alan, I'll watch it and I'll give you my views on it next show.

[01:20:46] I'll watch it too. I actually need to re-watch it. I need to re-watch this. But actually, I'd forgotten that Dennis Leary was in it. And now that kind of he is our role model of the leader, I need to go back and refresh my memory with his performance. Yeah. And I may or may not do a doubleheader with Judge Dredd just to see. There are two versions of Judge Dredd. There's the Sylvester Stallone version from the maybe early 90s. Okay. And then there was a version that, what's the guy's name? Looks like a newer version.

[01:21:16] Yeah. Okay. With a different actor. It's supposed to be a better movie, but I don't, not as many people know it. Yeah. I just can't remember the guy's name who stars as it. So. Well, I'll probably do the old one because I love 80s nostalgia, 90s nostalgia. And that's what the whole vanguard is about. You're doing a Sly Stallone doubleheader. I think so. Yeah. Okay. I'll do that before next week. And for Alan Jackson and foremost, I'm John Reap. Reap. I think. Reap? Yeah, Reap. My bad. John Reap.

[01:21:45] That's what the guys in Connecticut thought your name was. He's like, I don't know. We're going to see John Reap or something. I don't know. All right, everybody. Goodbye. Bye. You demand John Reap. You've been listening to The Mesh, an online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment, music to community.

[01:22:14] All programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube. Check us out online at themesh.tv. Discover other network shows and give us feedback on what you just heard. We'll see you next week.