Vibe Coding is BS w/ Charlie Meyer | Better Offline
By Better Offline
Summary
## Key takeaways - **Vibe Coding is Often Demoware**: Vibe coding, defined as software that works well during a demo but fails in day-to-day use, is often just demoware. AI tutors and tools that generate dashboards are examples of this, as they may not function as intended when used by actual users. [01:06], [01:14] - **Replet's AI Shift Alienated Educators**: Replet, once a beloved online IDE for teaching coding, alienated its user base by enabling AI autocomplete for students without an opt-out. This change, implemented without clear communication, led to inflated grades and frustration among teachers. [02:43], [05:31] - **AI Coding Platforms Lack Real-World Utility**: Many AI coding platforms, like Replit and Lovable, are sold as 'vibe coding' solutions, but their actual utility is limited. Users often spend money on these platforms only to find they don't deliver functional software, with the common defense being a 'skill issue' on the user's part. [04:36], [11:00] - **Scaling Law Hype Outpaced AI Progress**: The excitement around AI, particularly with scaling laws suggesting exponential performance gains from larger models, created a bubble. However, the anticipated breakthroughs, like GPT-5, have shown only marginal improvements, indicating the freight train of progress may have ended. [31:35], [35:30] - **AI's Promise of Automation Falls Short**: Despite promises of automating tasks, AI often fails to deliver. Examples include AI recommending faulty software like Descript for audio editing or accounting software making frequent categorization errors, highlighting that AI-driven automation is not yet reliable. [25:36], [49:34]
Topics Covered
- Is AI Software Just "Demoware" That Fails Daily?
- Is "Vibe Coding" a Fraudulent Lie?
- Is AI's High Cost Worth Its Marginal Utility?
- Does AI's "You Got This" Message Annoy You?
- Why Did AI Scaling Laws Fail After GPT-4?
Full Transcript
Hello and welcome to Better Offline. I'm
your host, Ed Zitron.
We're here in the beautiful iHeart Radio
studios in New York City. And I've got a
guest, of course, Charlie Meyer, the
esteemed blogger and CEO of Pico.
Charlie, thank you for joining me.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me. So
yeah, you've you've gained some, I would
say, notoriety recently by making blogs
that go against the oinking of the hogs
of the valley, and I I think your
scaling laws piece was the one that
really got me going.
>> Uh yeah, so I I uh my blog gets some
love and mostly hate on HackerNews.
That's my distribution channel. And so
I'm trying to get off of that. We're
going to try and build like a newsletter
type thing. But yeah, I'll post on
Hacker News and every once in a while
I'll get something that blows up and
I'll get my uh get my haters in there.
So,
>> so what is it that's pissing them off?
>> Uh so like I had a post a few weeks back
that was on I called it LLMs or the
ultimate demoare, right?
>> And so I define demoware as software
that you make the software and it works
well in the 30 minutes that you're
showing it off to executives or
whoever's going to buy it, right?
>> And then it doesn't do the thing, right?
Right. It doesn't do the thing
dayto-day. And so I I listed some
examples and my startup's in edtech,
right? So we do, you know, and so like
that's always something that I pick on
is is I really hate AI tutors and we can
get into to that and and how that all
works. But um so I said, "Oh, I listed
out a few things that I thought were
demoware." So it's like, "Oh, vibe
coding that makes dashboards." You know,
it's an easy thing to pick on. And then
I said, "Uh uh, you know, AI uh tutors."
And I said, "Well, maybe the kid won't
want to talk to an AI tutor."
>> Yeah.
>> That was the critique I made, right? Is
like maybe they just don't want to talk
to him.
>> Yeah. won't want to talk to a person.
>> They want to maybe they want to have
like a teacher who is like in the
classroom.
>> Crazy idea.
>> Maybe.
>> Yeah. But did people not like that?
>> Well, yeah. So, some some people uh you
know, we can name names if we need to,
but I actually don't know how to
pronounce them. So, uh uh but anyway, so
people are in there and they're like,
you have no idea. Like, if you think
that AI can't tutor calculus, like you
have never even tried. It's like it's a
classic like you you're missing out.
like you somehow are completely missing
the point
>> and you know something's really good and
in innovative when the only defense of
it is you're a [ __ ]
>> you you ape
>> when you have never tried it and it's
like well what if I like have like what
if this is like actually the thing I
spend my time on is thinking about this
you're a non nonAI IDE right so a coding
environment
>> yeah yeah well and that yeah we got yeah
lots of that lots of that but like so
the software that I make uh bouncing
around a little bit here But Replet was
a is a company and so Replet
>> was a very loved by teachers IDE online
and their whole thing was like we teach
like we help you teach coding online
because it's a way for you to run Python
and Java and all your code online and
you can do it and you can do it on
Chromebooks and you can collaborate and
they had like teacher tools and they
sold the software to schools. I was a
teacher for a couple years. That's kind
of like my background as an engineer and
then a teacher and I used Replet and
it's awesome. And this was was this
before they used AI or
>> this was before they used AI. So I was
>> and what so Replet just for the
listeners right now Replet is an AI
powered coding environment that claims
to be able to vibe code software but
doesn't really but what did it used to
be?
>> So it used to be an excellent tool just
an absolutely fantastic tool. It was it
was just you go on you log on like
Google Docs for coding
>> right? So like you think okay well you
back in the day you'd have to download
Microsoft Word and whatever and that
sucks and you know it's it's great to
bring that online into the cloud and
they did that and they were like very
innovative they were kind of like first
to market of having like a very fully
featured online IDE and that is useful
for exactly one thing and that is useful
for teaching in schools right
>> because like you have kids and they have
$200 Chromebooks that the school bought
them and so you get Replet and like boom
I have a great way to teach computer
science now. That is fantastic.
>> And that's what it used to be before and
now it's just
>> and now it's Yeah,
>> it's So listeners, you probably heard me
mention Ripley in the past. It's one of
my least favorite, most favorite
companies. If you go on the Replet
Reddit, it's just the wallet inspector.
>> And so now that's kind of like I I I've
gotten rid of most of my like doom
scrolling places, but like this is not I
don't know what type of scrolling it is,
but like I go on our replet.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
>> And it's just so funny. It's just guy
being guy being like, "Yeah, spend
$1,500." It doesn't really work.
>> Yeah.
>> But but I think if I spend $5,000 more
it might
>> well that I mean people are like, "Okay,
well should I spend $5,000?" I mean, we
can we can be reasonable, Ed. We can
bring the numbers down to reality. It's
it's I spent $50, which for a person who
is got a bad software idea,
>> that's a that's a big waste of money.
and they're like, "Okay, well, it seems
like I might need to spend $250 more or
should I go on Fiverr?"
>> Yeah.
>> And then it's just people in Reddit. I
mean, it's Reddit, so they're just like
skill issue.
>> Well, that and also the people who are
like, "I too am running into this
problem."
>> And then a lot of that. Yeah. Where it's
like and but Replet just just for for
anyone on there on on Replet right now
like what do they do to teachers? So
teachers, they had a product for
teachers that worked. That was great.
That was well
>> teachers.
>> And on November something, 2023, this is
a big day for my business cuz this is
the only reason I have my business is to
replace
>> because they turned on AI autocomplete
for kids.
>> No way to shut it off.
>> Doesn't that defeat the purpose of
learning?
>> Yeah. So I I had a I have a small
YouTube channel with not, you know, a
million subscribers, but you know, I
talked to teachers on there and, you
know, we had a customer of of mine on
there and they were like, "Yeah, you
know, that year it just seemed like the
guy I he just like he missed the fact
that the AI got turned on. No one sent
him an announcement or an email or a
warning."
>> So all of his students were just
amazing.
>> They were just He was like, "Yeah,
everybody everybody everybody got an A
that semester like I wonder." And you
know,
>> did that actually So did students
actually end up getting great scores
because no one noticed the AI going?
Yeah, I mean it took depending on who
you if you're wandering around the
classroom looking at students and you
see them all tab completing like because
AI
>> and just for just for the listeners as
well Scott spell out. So with these AI
platforms you hit tab complete because
it's basically like auto correct coding.
>> Yeah. And so so like AI for what it's
worth, you know, we can be really
balanced podcast,
>> but AI can really well, it can solve
intro to computer science for ninth
grader problems with the incredible
accuracy.
>> Well, that's Cole Brown from the
Internet of Bugs. He said, "It makes the
easy things easier and the hard things
harder."
>> Yes. And And so Yeah. So if you need to,
if you're in ninth grade and you're
writing your first program, Yeah. you
can you can tab complete the whole thing
in one go. It'll oneshot it, Ed. That's
incredible. It'll oneshot your ninth
grade program.
>> It's this term that that term just for
listeners is like it means that you just
give it a problem and it solves it
correctly.
>> Yeah. So it's like count to 10
>> and the AI can count to 10
>> which is incredible. It's revolutionary.
>> But fun fun fact if you try and make
chat GPT count to a million it freaks
out. If you do the voice mode, Adam
Conover told me this one. If you go like
count to a million, it stops around 9 or
10 and then says should I continue and
it just won't do it. It's very funny. I
love living in the future.
>> But uh yeah, so so they they though they
turned on the AI and then they were like
we're not doing education and companies
have deprecated things.
>> Yeah. It happens. Usually not their main
product.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. So they I mean
there I'll tell you, you know, I'm a
indie developer, whatever. Like our
software does not make a ton of money
because there isn't that much money
selling an online IDE to schools.
There's money, but it's not a it's not a
billion dollar business. It's fine. I
don't
>> neither's replet, but
>> Well Well, yeah, but you know, You can't
raise on billions of valuation, right?
>> No. No. Saying, "Hey, we're, you know,
kids have Chromebooks and we're going
to, you know, charge $10 a student or
whatever." Like, you can't. Of course
that you're not going to raise a bill.
You're not, that's not a billion dollar
business.
>> No.
>> But the AI thing seems magical. And
then, you know, the vibe coding thing
happened and, you know, as soon as the
vibe coding stuff started happening,
they were like, "We're all in on this."
And they deleted. They deleted
everything. Deleted it.
>> They So, not just deprecated, right? So,
it's one thing to deprecate software.
>> And deprecate is when you stop
supporting it, right? You say it's it's
no longer supported and you put up a big
red scary banner on the top saying your
work is readon. You cannot create
anymore.
>> That is a really mean thing to do, but
it happens. Software changes. You know,
>> Replet for what it's worth to be nice
and fair to them. Like they have
investors and you know they're under the
gun to provide some returns
>> and so whatever the teacher thing isn't
going to make them a ton of money, but
they deleted the stuff which is wild.
And when you say the stuff, was this
like projects that schools had been
working on?
>> It was. So, a teacher says, "I'm going
to spend 2, three years putting in all
my curriculum, all these markdown files,
all this stuff, all these tests. I'm
going to configure all this stuff." No.
>> Deleted. Gone.
>> Monsters.
>> Deleted.
>> Actual monsters. And now,
>> but they but they sent the warning
email Ed.
>> Wow.
>> In July when are teachers online looking
at their work email in July?
>> Yeah. Classic classic big month for
teachers.
Well, for American teachers, yeah, it's
it's not a huge month. So, yeah. In
July, we say we're going to delete all
your stuff and then it's gone. And was
there any way to back it up?
>> Well, there was until they deleted it
all.
>> That's so cool.
>> It's awesome. So, they're an awesome
like if you're a a Replet uh developer,
you know, when when the next big thing
comes up and Replet may decide to delete
all your stuff.
>> Well, Replet, they launched uh agent 3.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> That was my favorite launch of a product
I've ever seen because uh I've mentioned
this on the show before, but they it's
like, oh, it's an autonomous coding
thing and it's just the digital Mr.
Bean. It's just like, why don't you go
off and build me a software thing? And
it just [ __ ] spends $100 and goes, I
don't know. You like this? I don't
[ __ ] care. And then they had to
release a thing where you could make it
think less. They had to like add tweaks
to it because it was so bad. It's in I
actually feel like, and I'm not putting
words in your mouth here, I feel like
vibe coding may be just fraud. I think
it's a fraud. I don't It should not be
legal to lie. Like because it is a
[ __ ] lie. So, so I will I'll defend
the vibe coder platforms out here. Okay.
But but but so the the defense No, I
mean so it is it's fraudulent, right? I
mean like if you say, "Hey, you don't
know how to code at all
>> and uh yeah, just sign on to this
website and I mean look at their
marketing page. I mean that's exactly
what I'm loading
with a with a nice blue iPhone air."
>> Oh yeah, beautiful blue.
>> I I have the I have the space black.
>> Hell yeah. The iPhone air rise up. It's
a great phone.
>> It's a great phone.
>> I'm I'm not Apple made me pay for it.
Yeah. Turn your ideas into apps. What
will you create? The possibilities are
endless. And then it's a fake prompt
that says, "Make me a business tool for
marketing teams that helps generate
professional business proposals." And
then add automated backup and recovery.
If I think if you asked Replet to do
that, it would cost $300 and nothing
would happen. I think it would just funk
out a line like barely functional code.
So I wrote a post on this and I was
excited to end I was I was excited to
end the post saying there has never been
a successful thing ever.
>> Unfortunately Replet has added a set of
case studies and I think that they use
and so they the case studies are we sold
to enterprises and we're going to do
prototypes of internal
>> dev tools or not dev not dev tools
internal like you know management
software for inside your back office
software. So they haven't had a case
study since what looks like August. And
one of them is how Zinus says $140,000
with Replet and it but it also cuts
development time by 50%.
>> But did so then the question is did the
person typing stuff into Replet did they
know how to code?
>> Exactly. See that's
>> because if they know how to code
whatever stuff it's not vibe coding
>> it's just you could have used cursory
you could have used wind serode
or what is it? What's the free one
Amazon's doing now?
>> Kuro, maybe.
>> Kira. And then there's the I like the
the one that came out from China and
everyone was like that's going to send
information to the Chinese. It's like
>> will it?
>> I don't know. But I don't think they're
going to your clone of Flappy Bird is
got to be taken up by
>> P. The the way that the word vibe coding
has the the meaning that it has today, I
believe, is you do not know how to code.
You type prompt and you get
>> app out. And I I'm not gonna dox this
person because they were nice to me
once right?
>> But like there's a person online like
they just do like, "Oh, here's 100 days
of AI and I'm gonna make a fully
functional software as a service company
fully and I don't know how to code." And
then you look at this person and they're
typing in the prompts and it's like they
clearly have like a pretty strong
technical background and then the thing
still doesn't work by the way, but
>> so cool. Like they know how things work
and it's still broken.
>> Yeah. So I mean whatever. This person
was like a product manager or something.
So like they they they know what an API
is and they know what a web server is
and they know the names of the different
technologies and like that's going to
get them part of the way there. But the
idea that you can end to end create a
software product that has some value
>> is crazy. We would have heard about it.
No, that's kind of and your demoare post
was really good about this because it
was kind of like look, you can do the
proof of concept, you can do this, but
we've never seen the next stage. And
someone else did a really good one was
like shovelware. They said where's the
shovelware? Where's the crap software?
ly I remember the first times I was on
the internet the amount of weird
shareware [ __ ] there was just like
different forms of IRC clients and [ __ ]
there were people making weird software
why isn't that happening yeah I mean so
you'll see okay I made Flappy Bird I
made a weird thing I made like I you can
make little small pieces of software for
yourself that maybe have a little bit of
value it is fun it is a novelty yes
>> if you know like but then it then it
doesn't work like it's So I I do not
know I'm I'm a web developer, so I know
how to do web apps.
>> I can't code for [ __ ] So
>> yeah, whatever. But like that that's
what I know. That's that's what I've
been doing. I've been coding for
whatever
>> and I know how to do that. I do not know
how to make iPhone apps.
>> So I was like, okay, you know what I'm
going to do? They just announced quad
whatever cuz I'm interested in this
stuff. I'm an early adopter. I don't And
also if it did what it however I may
feel about AI, if it actually did what
if Vibe coding was real, that would
actually be a huge deal. That would be a
huge [ __ ] deal. I wouldn't
>> I would have all my ethical concerns if
I could actually build software without
knowing anything. Wow, that would be
great. Never been the case. But you
tried though.
>> Well, so I tried. So So my idea was
like, okay, I use my phone too much. I
I'm going to make an app called App
Snooze. It takes So you say I want
Gmail. I want it snooze for a half hour.
>> Got it.
>> So that when I open up the Gmail app, it
uses this screen time thing and it says
blocked. And then 30 minutes is up, I
get it back.
>> Right? that is impossible to make using
iOS essentially without like a
substantial amount of of work. It's it's
based on like the limitations of how
Apple does their stuff with screen time.
It just cannot be done. So I type this
stuff in. Claude is like sitting there.
It's like, oh yeah, you're you're
awesome. You are killing me, dude. This
is a great idea.
>> You got this.
>> You got this. Yeah. Which it actually
does say and and one of their I've been
watching like the World Series or
whatever and a lot of NFL and like the
chatbt ads. We can hopefully talk about
that. Those are
any of those.
>> Okay. Well,
>> oh, no, no. I love to hear about this
because uh I'm a Raiders fan.
>> Yeah.
>> And um I try not to watch. If I needed
to watch a poorly conceived product, I
could just use my season tickets, but I
sold them. So, wait, but keep going
though.
>> Okay. Well, so but so, so it's like you
got this, but then it's this is the
whatever. So, they have Haiku and they
have Sonnet and they have Opus. So,
whatever. Awesome names. But so they
have sonnet which is the really good one
you know hack.
>> It's very well respected.
>> It's supposed to be it's supposed to be
cloud's supposed to be the good one for
coding. And so I was like I'm gonna pay
I'm going to pay $20. I'm just going to
see what happens. If I can get this
thing on the app store that'll be great.
I'm going to charge 99 cents. Let's see
if I make a hundred bucks.
>> Sure.
>> See if I make my Apple developer account
back.
>> Yeah.
>> To dump the 100 bucks into the Apple
developer account. Awesome on Apple by
the way. You can't actually do half the
app coding that you need to without
paying them 100 bucks.
>> So good.
>> That's a business.
>> It's that's that's Apple bank. But
anyways, so I I I do that. I want to
make my 100 bucks back. But it cannot be
done.
>> Well, the app you couldn't build the app
though. It's um
>> Well, but because of like literal
limitations in how iOS works in terms of
like you can't have a timer that goes
off and messes with screen time. That's
just not a thing that
>> there was this thing called brick where
there's a physical device as well, but
that feels like a Bluetooth.
>> Something's going on with brick. I don't
know.
>> But here's here's the thing as well with
all of this. You just made me think it
is weird that the app doesn't just go,
"Yeah, I can't build that, mate."
>> It would be nice if it did say that. And
it was this was weird. I had never
observed this behavior before. And
again,
I've posted online like, "Okay, you
know, this you know, three bees in
blueberry that thing, the the blueberry
thing, whatever." And and people I I
posted that on LinkedIn and someone was
like, "You are lying." And I post my
link. I I post the link to the chat and
they're like, "You had a secret prompt
that told it to be stupid." Yeah, it's
prompt injection.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Like you have a system
prompt that says like and it's like dude
be stupid as [ __ ] Be a piece of [ __ ]
>> Oh, dude. I messed up. I put be stupid
in my system.
>> I should have put I put
>> I should have put be smart. If I put
smart, it would have worked.
>> So on this, you just reminded me when I
was [ __ ] around with Claude code. So,
I did a story a few months ago about
how, you know, I don't know if you've
seen like Vibrank where it's got like
people on CL spend like $50,000. I love
those people. I think they're awesome.
Well, to try this myself, I went on I
was like, "What is the most token
inensive software you could build me?"
It's like, "Oh, yeah, an autonomous car
in a metaverse." I'm like, "Cool. Build
all of that." And it just sat there for
hours just built and I don't even know
what it sped out at the end. Well, I
mean, it certainly Well, you could have
a trillion dollar startup on your hands.
>> But it's just
>> You should check out that code. It's so
sick that these things don't even go
like, "Yeah, we can't do that. Like, I
can't do an autonomous car startup. I
don't have any training data." Very
basic. But if it was if it was if that
thing was smart or useful, right, it has
the ability to look things up online. It
should have looked through the
documentation and and it should have
said, "Well, what can we do with timers?
What can we do with screen time? Can you
hook up a timer to screen time? We'll
let you do this in the background and
get the half hour time in correctly."
And it's like it's it's it's demoare and
it allows you to build demoware,
>> but it didn't even build a demo of this.
Well, so no, it built me something I was
kind of excited about because it it let
me pick the app. So I picked Gmail and I
picked 30 minutes
>> and then it it it worked. Gmail is
turned off,
>> right?
>> 30 minutes elapse,
>> right?
>> Gmail is not back on.
>> Oh, so you just cut Gmail.
>> Well, no. I mean,
>> have not been in your email since.
>> What? Yeah, exactly. Sorry customers, if
you have been emailing me, it is because
my app is is messed up. No, but but it
it it was like it just lied, right? I
mean, and so like that's imagine being
someone I'm a software developer, so
like okay, whatever. Like I'm going to I
don't know iOS, but like I'm going to go
on the Apple pages and see what's up and
I'm going to ask some meaningful
follow-ups and determine that this
didn't work and okay, I lost my 100
bucks in the developer account.
>> But if you don't know how to code,
you're going to be like,
>> what are you going to do? Well, there's
nothing you can do because the reason I
I read the replet pages and the cursor
pages and the cursor one, it's people
that can code a little
>> at least or
>> a little bit. But Replet is just it's
50% and same with Lovable's Reddit as
well. Lovable is another for listeners,
it's another AI coding platform sold as
a vibe coding thing and it's all it's
50% people being like I spent $300 and
then like 10% people just lying. People
be like, I just reached 12,000 m monthly
recurring revenue. Uh it's all good for
me. And everyone being like, can I see
it? And they never respond. And then
there's the there's the people who are
like looking for a replet developer.
>> Yeah. And it's like, so you're looking
for someone that can write software,
write and build software. Interesting.
Like a software developer, one might
say.
>> I don't know. I don't know where to
find.
>> It's almost like there are like hundreds
of thousands, millions of people trained
to do that. But yeah, we don't need
them. We can just we talk into the thing
and turn your app into reality.
>> Except you. It's just It is really crazy
how much vibe coding has proliferated
considering how [ __ ] It's nothing.
it. Well, so but so if you need like if
you need a prototype, so if like this
whole thing boils down to if if the
expectations were real, if it was like
>> turn your turn your sentence into a
prototype of an application in minutes.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. Like an MVP.
Well, MVP is like needs to work.
>> Oh yeah.
>> But
>> well, okay. Oh, sorry. I thought you
were saying hypo hypothetical world
where it worked.
>> Well, no. Yeah. Sorry. Well, no. In a
hypothetical world and where it does
what it does today, you can get like a
mockup.
>> Yeah.
>> If it said build a semifunctional
wireframe mockup of your application
that you could show to kind of validate
your idea to your friends in minutes.
>> Yeah.
>> For $30 or however much your credits end
up being. That's fine.
>> But does that happen? Doesn't
>> You could kind of do that if you're
lucky. You roll the dice.
>> That's the thing. It's always if you're
lucky. There's enough asterisks on this.
It's just insane that it's got this far
cuz I've read a lot of vibe coding
articles and if you read like Kevin
Roose of course and the times and people
like that, you read these articles and
you'd think, "Wow, you can just do this.
You can just go and do this. This is the
the future is today." But it's not
really not really the case at all.
>> But I think that the the the thing
that's so like pernitious about it is
that it's so easy to just say skill
issue.
>> Yeah.
>> You just you just two words, skill
issue. You're prompting it wrong.
>> David Gerard, David Gerard thing, but
no, it's Yeah, you're prompting it
wrong.
>> You're prompting it wrong. And so, and
there's no real way to disprove that
because can we go back in time and like
cuz it's all this probabilistic stuff
and so so I have a a post that I've put
up and it's it's code doesn't happen to
you. That's my thing.
So it's it's my because I you know
taught programming for a while and so if
you're teaching a new programmer
>> sometimes if they have like if they've
kind of gotten unlucky and they have a
bad attitude they're you know and it's
not their fault but they might think
like coding is really mysterious and
it's really weird
>> and I type code in and I press run and
it doesn't always do what I want and so
I'm just going to like mess around
>> right
>> and like vibe coding is like a
productionized version of code happens
to you it's like you press button code
pops out it does mysterious thing and
then like you know so it's like it's
like that idea which was the wrong way
to program but like that's the way we're
doing it like and you were going to
>> what is the right way though? The right
way would be a computer is like you you
operate a computer, you turn it on, you
open the coding software that you're
going to use, whether it's an online
software like my wonderful software or
you know something like VS Code like
something for professionals whatever and
you type in code and you run it and then
the computer like executes it runs the
code according to the
>> the programming language.
>> The code is instructions. The code is
instructions and the code like happens
deterministically and maybe if you're
you know developing a game maybe there's
some random elements to the software
that you're developing but there's no
randomness like the randomness is under
your control.
>> Yeah. So it's it's the difference
between treating it as this mystic force
that you pull together versus
instructions.
>> It's instructions and so like if you're
if you're a really good programmer and
maybe you're whatever maybe you use AI
to to save you some typing and you still
have that good attitude whatever like
you can use to save typing that's fine.
I mean, that's the only real val like
that that feels like the only consistent
thing is just filling in blanks that you
know you could yourself. Like it fills
in it's auto correct and I'm not like
which may be useful. I'm not going to
lie like I I use it.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Like I but I used to have a
paid GPT account but I don't trust it to
do like the the models and this is one
of the things that I brought up in my
post is that the models like aren't
better now, right?
Well, GPT3 was okay and GPT4 was like
much better and then GPD5 is trash.
>> I mean, relatively speaking, maybe it's
a little bit better and maybe it costs
OpenAI more, which is a big development
and great for them and whatever.
>> It cost them less, but it costs more.
>> It costs more. Um, but so so it stopped
getting better. So, there was a time
where I was like, I'm going to I'm going
to buy into this. I'm an early adopter.
I'm kind I'm kind of a booster. Like, I
I I was cured by going to where's
your.com.
That's is it.com?
>> It's just where's your ad?
>> Oh, where's your ed? Nice. Okay. Well,
where's your edat? Cur cured me a little
bit of this cuz I'm like And I've just
had some situations where it's just
failed me so poorly. Like there was a a
confluence of events this summer where I
was just like, "No, what happened?
>> I'm done with this." Uh, first of all, I
got a strong recommendation from uh uh
GPT to buy a software called The Script,
which is like a podcast editing
software. So, cuz I I have I have a
YouTube channel and I want to like I I
say a lot of ums and o's and maybe I'm
saying some ums and a's right now.
Whatever. Who cares? And but I I'm like,
"Okay, I'm going to make this YouTube
channel. I want the production quality
to be decent. If there's a shortcut for
me,
>> seems like AI might be able to do this."
So
>> G I'm like to GPT. I'm like, "What is
good AI? Get rid of ums and software."
Sure. Just descript.
>> Kind of like a Google search, right?
>> Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, whatever. It's
an okay Google search, whatever. And so
he said, "You got to use descript." And
I was like, "Cool." And so I put in my
credit card, 20 bucks or 30 bucks or
whatever the whatever it was. Just I put
in a recording and just completely
mangled it.
>> Yep.
>> And it's just like the audio was
unusable.
>> It was it was off by an eighth of a
second off my voice and it's just like
there's no way there's I have no
recourse
>> and I'm not an audio engineer and so I
just okay like I I vibe I vibe edited my
my video and just ruined it.
>> It's almost like every promise they make
is it's going to automate everything.
It's like ah not really as long as you
know what you're doing. But but this was
like a meta level thing where the AI
recommended me other AI that also
screwed me over. And so I'm like, okay,
this is like this made this like because
I was using it to search, right? Yeah.
And so but but it failed me a search
because it's just
>> emphatically and then you look cuz then
I was like, well, what's wrong? Am I is
it a skill issue? Am I stupid?
>> And so I look and Reddit is just filled
with like this is the worst offer. This
is the worst software.
I used the script very briefly and all I
wanted to do was take a bit of audio and
turn it into a video with the text
happening that the way you read their
marketing material you would look at it
and think it would take 2 seconds. Took
me about 45 minutes and it was just by
the end of it I'm like I don't even want
to [ __ ] I'm so angry cuz it's like
this should be a button press. The whole
point of AI [ __ ] is meant it should
be a button press and it never is. But
wait, well, there are other events
though.
>> Well, so so there's that and so there's
that and then it's like so I'm I'm also
so I'm a web developer, right? And so
I'm not very good I I can't program
mobile apps. That's a thing that I can't
do. Don't know how.
>> I'm also not a very good like
infrastructure systems programmer,
whatever. That's, you know, cloud stuff,
whatever. I'm not I'm not great at that.
But that is an aspect of my job that I
have to do. Our website requires some
infrastructure difficult stuff, right?
>> Over the years, I've actually gotten
quite a bit better at that,
>> right? And so that used to be a use case
for me for GPT was like, oh, it'll I'll
ask you some infrastructure related
questions. I'm like, I know how to code.
I can piece the I can put the puzzle
together and you know, this is actually
going to save me a little bit of time,
>> right?
>> But I have outpaced GPT's ability in
infrastructure development. So it's
like, okay, well, I'm doing this project
and it's not helping.
>> Yeah,
>> it's just wasting my time. Okay, no need
for that. The description is BS. And
then I learned from Ed Zitron that this
stuff is
>> horrendously expensive. So it's like if
this was just regular software as a
service and it cost pennies to operate
and you know it was like kind of helpful
whatever.
>> Yeah. Be offensive.
>> It would be like it's fine whatever
there's a company they offered me this
this thing and it didn't work and you
know it happens.
>> Yeah.
>> But it's like in the context of a world
in which this is the future this is
magic in a click of a button you get
perfect audio out. If that's the promise
in the midst of all of this and an AI is
recommending to it this like meta level
like a dog idiot situation uh and then
it's then it's like drastic disastrously
expensive.
>> Yeah.
>> Like what is the point? What is the
point of all of this?
>> The point is we need to sell GPUs every
and literally on in the car here they
announced a 7-year $ 38 billion deal
between OpenAI and Amazon Web Services.
It's just like why? So that we can so
that they can do Sora 2 more so they can
generate more copyright infringement.
It's and but have do have you in the
past use these coding models a lot or is
it just kind of like on the side? I have
I so even like I will say even like two
weeks ago I had a very discreet task
where it was like in this one situation
I want to do this one little thing and
>> I I knew exactly what it was
>> and I was lazy and so I said write write
the code
>> and so I I put in and this is a joke
comment and people should do this more
often. I put in a I I pasted in the code
and I said this code comes courtesy of
chatbt. If you have any issues with this
software please contact OpenAI. That's
what I wrote in my code and I shipped it
and it worked
>> great.
>> Whatever.
>> Okay,
>> that's cool. It saved me 20 minutes.
>> That's That's And that's the thing.
That's the whole AI bubble. It's like
>> But I I'm not a paying subscriber
anymore.
>> Oh, that's even worse for them.
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, I I just I you know,
because it's it's the the stupidest
model of theirs could have come up with
that code because it was so easy. Uh you
know, it was it was finicky. It was
annoying. There have been situations
where I saying, you know, I say, "Oh,
there's a bug in this code. I paste it
in and it looks it over and I it saved
me in aggregate tens of hours in the
last 3 years.
>> That's fine. Like it's like if it was
regular SAS I'd be like cool. Yeah.
>> I I if it was I think that's kind of
part of why I cancelceled the
subscription because if it was if it you
know whatever you need to value your
time, you know, I could if it if it was
20 bucks a month and it saved me an hour
a month.
>> Hey, you know.
>> Yeah. It's like like trip it or flighty
like like a useful little bit of
software we pay for and it does a thing
and it wasn't stealing from everyone and
burning down like it's just it it only
makes sense if it was cheap and it's the
literal opposite. If this was like cheap
like cheap CPU driven [ __ ] then fine
sure but it's like I one day I think
we're going to find out how expensive
this is and it's going to scare the [ __ ]
out of people. But you know what that
that actually makes me want to move to a
specific post you made your scaling laws
post. Let's talk about this. So, you
were a booster at one point. You read
the stuff. Sure. But
>> you wrote a very eloquent piece about
the scaling laws about how and I've
tried to work this into my work, but
it's we can have I don't know if I'd
call it empathy, but some understanding
of how we got here with the AI bubble
because when GPT4 came out, it does seem
like tech people had a reason to be
excited.
>> I was so excited.
>> What was exciting?
>> It was awesome. you talked to it and it
was just like this I would ask it coding
problems that I found. So I was still a
teacher at the time and I was like oh
man like I have the AP computer science
exam coming up and I need to like come
up with practice problems and I was like
generate a set of 30 practice problems
and I obviously read them over. I did my
due diligence and I you know I tried the
I I did a good job putting them together
but it's like these are decent.
>> Yeah,
>> these are decent practice problems and
like this is this is useful software. I
did not understand how expensive it was,
but there was there's a the number of
things that would have to happen.
>> I will also give you so the read the
listeners don't get mad. To be clear,
JPT4 was 2023.
>> Yeah.
>> We had we were very early in
understanding. I mean, the environmental
damage was there early. Sure.
>> But they were also promising fix. But it
took a full year until June 2024 when
they it came out that OpenAI would burn
$5 billion. So like early on, we didn't
really know the costs either. And if I'm
sure someone will find a [ __ ] link
anyway, keep going.
>> Well, so but so I was I was pumped up
because I I I saw GPT3 was I I you know
I'm a tech person and so I remember
seeing early demos of GPT3 and it was
like interesting novelty. It would say
stupid things and it was kind of cool.
It could even generate sentences. That
was awesome.
>> 3.5 came out and GPT whatever chat GPT
it's like oh this is pretty cool. You
know, I I can use it as a search thing
and it says that I'm good, which I I
like when people say I'm good. Do you
like when people say you're good, Ed?
>> Uh, doesn't happen very much. But I
think I you know what? I'll be honest. I
that there's something I think mentally
about me where all of the
anthropomorphization pisses not even
pissed me off. I'm just like, okay, shut
up, shut up, shut up.
>> I think I was bullied too much as a kid
that like compliments don't work on me
anymore. I I do want to write a I do
want to write a thing at some point
about how if it wasn't chat GBT, if it
was like box get text.
>> Yeah.
>> And there was no anthropomorphization.
If it was just like this is a thing that
can generate usable or interesting or
like code for you, but there's no chat
element to it.
>> That would actually make it a lot better
to me. Like the anthropomorphization of
like, oh, you're talking to a person
that really makes me mad.
>> Yes. And also I find every time it goes,
you got it.
>> Shut up. Shut up. Shut down. So, in one
of these NFL ads, literally, I don't
know if they're like doing a nod to the
haters or what, but they like take
>> We're We're going We're going a couple
levels.
>> I'll make sure the link is in the
>> Well, yeah. No, there's like four of
them. Hopefully, they're on YouTube.
But, uh it's like a guy doing he's he's
trying to do pull-ups and and it's like
here's your pull-up plan. like you need
to do one pull-up and then you should do
two pull-ups and then you should do four
or five pull-ups and like eventually you
will be able to do several pull-ups and
and then at the end it's like you got
this.
>> Okay, if so the plan is you do more
pull-ups over time. You could probably
just work that out by doing doing
pull-ups or texting a mate. I see
>> but nobody said you got this.
>> But yeah, exactly.
No, my my friend Mac when I text him
about pull-ups he says much he's like
you [ __ ] got this. I think he may
have literally It's just
>> That's the commercial.
>> That's the commercial.
>> That's the commercial.
>> But it's
>> the commercial you people watching the
NFL and they're like, "Oh [ __ ] why
should I use chat GPT?" Oh, it's going
to tell me a pull-up plan where I
increase from one to several.
>> One to several.
>> You got this.
>> You got this. I mean, I didn't pause. I
mean, maybe I did not pause the
commercial, but I It could It could have
said some really interesting stuff in
the middle. I don't know. But the bullet
the bullet because it has to have a
bulleted list.
>> I I am pretty sure. And I might be lying
and so whatever, you know, send me some
hate mail. But like I'm pretty sure it
said like do a couple, wait a week, you
know, drink a protein shake and like,
you know, do a couple more.
>> It's just Google search except it makes
up the results. That's all the three
[ __ ] years.
>> So I I have a I have a new idea which is
that it's it's Yahoo Answers, but the
person has a labbotomy and was like it
just did cocaine.
>> That's Yahoo Answers. Yahoo. That that's
just Yahoo or Kora.
>> But but it's like but it's like light
speeded.
>> Yeah. Like the fastest. Well, Kora now
is GPT. Like they do because um Adam
D'Angelo is on the board of OpenAI.
Sweet.
>> So, it's just got GPT answers and GPT
questions now. So cool.
>> But early on it was exciting and there
were these scaling laws. walk me through
what through the listeners who might not
understand.
>> So yeah, so the the post that I wrote
which Ed very nicely called eloquent. So
if I could pay you $20 a month to kind
of just send me stuff like you got this
I'll just I'll email those you got this.
>> Yeah. Okay, that's great. I'll put it on
a schedule. Yeah, if you could just do
that, I'll pay you 20 bucks a month. Um
no, but so so it there was an idea that
if you increase the size of the models
I'm not a AI I'm not an AI scientist.
And so in this post I said I'm not an AI
expert or an economist but like you look
at this chart this chart that they had
and you can like the thing and I
actually think I cited my sources the
original like paper basically about the
scaling laws. They have this chart that
is incredible. It is like make model 10
times bigger get the nice jump in
performance. Make model 10 times bigger
get nice jump in performance. And then
the idea is like okay well if we just
keep making it 10 times bigger we will
get like who knows how good this can
get. And it kind and it did work like
>> that was working for a minute.
>> That's how they went to the best of my
knowledge that's how they went from 3.5
to four. I mean there's a number of they
have smart people over there like I mean
we can be honest that like they're doing
clever stuff.
>> Smart is also a very subjective but
these are people who are experts in
mathematics and
>> yeah they're doing hard real math and
they're getting results. Like the fact
that it can do what it does is
incredible.
>> Yeah. It's kind of crazy that they can
do it if that was all they were saying.
>> If that was all they were saying. if
they were just like we did research and
we've created this incredible piece of
technology that feels almost alien at
this point. I mean or at the point when
we discovered it now it feels like you
know just we take it for granted that
it's kind of this trash thing
>> but like at the moment when it was
released it was like oh my gosh like
this is actually crazy.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and and the idea was we make it 10
times bigger and we will get a similar
jump in performance and that is GPT 4.5
>> which is like a footnote in history.
>> Oh that was
>> that that was released and and Sam
Altman was just like, "Uh, yeah, well,
we made a big model." And
>> it was the best announcement ever. I'm
actually going to put, but from what I
remember, Miss Miss Clammy Sammy was
like, "Yeah, you know, it's I'm just
going to do it from memory." I remember
it's like, "Yeah, good news, it's really
good for for writing. Bad news, it's
really compute intensive." And everyone
was like, "Yay." And and in the
announcement, I I did quote this in the
post because I don't want to make stuff
up and like whatever, but they literally
said with each 10x with each order of
magnitude, you know, 10x
>> increase in model size, we will get an
improvement in performance.
>> Yes.
>> But like where's the like where's the
big improvement,
>> right? It's gone.
>> I don't I I think that was them. I think
that was the moment. I don't know what
day they announced 4.5, but like I think
>> temporary some in that was the that was
game over.
>> Yeah. And then they did the reasoning
stuff and the reasoning stuff was
>> well the reasoning thing was September
2024 and I my favorite thing about that
was reading all the tech press writing
about it and being like can any of you
tell me what this does? Can any can any
of you tell me why this matters to this
day and I'm by the way I'm not actually
it took a minute for me to work out what
the [ __ ] and it's just a hat on a hat
thing. It's like instead of spitting out
an output it goes what would the output
be? Oh, I will skip I will go through it
and choose these steps which is it's
test time compute and it's meant to
>> and I could have had a moment of
reflection when the reasoning models
came out where cuz I I was like it was
still the height of the fever though.
>> I know but I I so I asked it a hard
question. So I I did a I did a math
degree and a computer science degree. So
I was like take this topic from
sophomore year abstract algebra and do
this like visualization of the thing,
right? And I took one of the early
reasoning models, whichever one it was
01. Sure. Sure. Because it's like you
have a PhD level thing in the pocket.
Okay. So, PhD level thing should be able
to take sophomore math sophomore and
college math concept and visualize it.
Yeah. Should be able to do that. And
then it didn't.
>> Oh,
>> and then I kind of just didn't I was
kind of just like, oh, I guess I h And
then I just didn't think about it. And
then I just kept on kind of hoping that
something exciting would happen.
>> Yeah. And I can and bit of empathy here.
I get if you're and at that time so it
was September 2024. A month later they'd
raised 6.6 billion to get a credit
facility of $4 billion. Like they it
looked like Open AI was going places.
Unless you're like me and you've read
every single possible financial thing
you can get a h hand on and you've
obsessed over the numbers. But I can get
why someone who was stick within the
booster ring might not immediately be
like [ __ ] because yeah I don't know if
people hadn't built things with
reasoning and it did actually take a few
months for people to work out products
with reasoning.
>> Yeah. I mean and and whatever. I mean I
don't know what the improvements were
and they improved on the benchmarks.
That's fine. It's it's kind like and and
I'm sure that the coding results are
marginally better.
>> That's the thing though marginally.
Yeah. It's always margin
>> but now it's marginally but that's the
thing. 3 to four was sick. Huge jump.
>> That was sick. That was not marginal. If
you had a if you had if your lights were
on, if you were paying attention and you
typed a thing into three and you typed a
thing into four, you should be
impressed.
>> Oh, I I remember the jump. I wasn't
doing better offline at the time. Didn't
do that until February 2024, but I
remember being like, "Oh, that's but I
remember just being like, okay, now
what?" Like I was I was It was like,
"Wow, we made a computer do this and
this. Cool. Okay, now what?"
>> Yeah. And so like I was vaguely aware of
the of the line chart that I mentioned
in that post. And so I was like, "Oh,
like all they have to do." It was like
it is a freight train towards like
actual really cool thing because it's
like just make it bigger. And and
therefore if we just need to make it
bigger then we do need more compute
>> and the reasoning models were you
finally got another way to throw compute
because it's the training compute and
more compute to generate an answer. Test
time compute. Wow.
>> Yeah. So like that's that's where the
the the freight train's over and I and I
just 4.5 came out. didn't really think
about it that hard. They start doing the
reasoning stuff and it's like, okay,
well, they have marginal improvements
and they say it did really good on a
math Olympiad or whatever and like
that's that's interesting, but but then
it's like another whole year goes by
>> and then and then GPT5 comes out and
like what what was that? It was nothing.
It was so strange.
>> And so that that was the final so when
I'm talking about my confluence of
events that cured me of my boosterism
like I started reading your stuff about
it being expensive, but then I was like
this is interesting. I've started
reading this guy Ed's posts. GPT5 is
coming out next week. I wonder if this
guy is going to have an extraordinary
amount of egg on his face because this
like you might have been scared. I I
wonder
>> I I wasn't because I have the Stonewall
of the Buddha, but it's I was also just
like when it
>> when Reasoning was coming up going back
to 2023, they there was some real [ __ ]
The rumors around that Q star was it was
like the reason Sam got fired was they
found a terrifying new AI. They kind of
like drummed up. There were leaks about
it. There were leaks about levels of
intelligence. There was all of these big
leaks. There was really no leaking
around GPT5 other than a Wall Street
Journal story towards the end of 2024
where it was like, "Yeah, it's costing a
[ __ ] ton of money. It isn't working very
well." Like the leaks, the reason I
because the thing is I mean this to this
day. If I am wrong about all this, I
don't think I am. I will admit it. I
will explain why. But GBT5 I wasn't
particularly worried about because it
did. I could not [ __ ] tell you what
the what it was going to be. Like no one
really if you go back to 2023 and you
look up GPT5 stuff, the [ __ ] that people
are saying is insane. There was someone
saying it would be completely autonomous
and it would turn weapons systems
against people. There's bonkers [ __ ]
>> But getting up to it, yeah, it was kind
of a proving point, but it was just
another [ __ ] model. Well, and so and
so that I you and I started exchanging
emails because I whatever I I saw your
podcast and I sent my post over and it
was it was it was interesting talking to
you and then I I when that when that
announcement was going on I emailed you
and you got a lot of emails coming
through but I said Ed ed Ed ed ed they
announced paywalled chat colors.
>> Yes. I go through No, I remember this
but go through this
>> in the announcement of GPT5.
>> The biggest thing ever. They're like,
"For our paid subscribers, you can turn
your chat yellow,"
>> which they still haven't released. So,
>> they still haven't released that.
>> I don't Well, I'm not a paying I'm not a
paying subscriber, so I I've never seen
a yellow.
>> I I'm paying for chat GPT plus.
>> See if you can turn it yellow.
>> I want to see if I can do this live on
air.
>> Yellow or pink? Green might be an
option.
>> Change my window color.
>> Well, the model's not going to GPD.
>> Are you googling GPD? Oh, I'm going to
ask it because it's [ __ ] insane. If
this does searching the web, yes, you
can change they did.
>> Well, well, can you though?
>> Um, on some platforms you can change the
accent color.
>> God, this [ __ ] stinks. The fact that
you can't ask a product what it does.
>> What? Well, if you if you can't ask like
I don't know what's a good, but I mean,
if you can't ask if you can't type into
a Google Doc in 2007, what does Google
Docs do? That's unsurprising.
>> But that's because Google Docs is a
place to write words. This is meant to
answer things.
>> Well, I know that's what I'm saying. But
it's like they've they claim that it's
this all, you know, all all knowing,
omnisient thing, and it cannot tell you
how to turn. Shouldn't it have just done
it for you?
>> Yeah. Or like given me the
>> it should have it should have said,
edit, great question. Would you like it
to be blue, yellow, pink, or or
Charizard orange
>> and and like, but where was the where
was it? That's what it should have done.
>> And also the idea that that was one of
the announcements is very cool. I love
the idea that like it's the biggest
moment ever. And you can now make chat
GPD brown. It It's insane. It's insane.
>> I don't know if brown is one of the
supportive colors. You might need to
wait for next year.
>> Yeah, that's
>> that that relies on the compute.
Actually, the Oracle deal unlocks brown
as one of the colors.
>> Oh my god, it's so cool that we've built
our entire economy on top of this as
well. But back the GBT thing, it is it
was such a weird moment because
watching everyone try and be excited
about it was really good. There was the
whole Theo weight. Not Theo Wait. Um,
that's the information. The Theo
>> um, there's this [ __ ] guy. Now I'm
gonna I really shouldn't have blanked.
I've mentioned him. He did a whole thing
about GPT5.
I'm going to look this up live on air.
This is a professional show. Um, where
he did a whole thing saying GPT5 was the
most amazing thing ever. And then
>> Oh. And then walked it back
>> and then had to be like, "Yeah,
actually, yes." Theo Theo Brown. There
we go. Theo Brown. He did a thing
saying, "I'm scared of how good GPT5
is." Then a week later it's like
actually it's not the same as when I
used it which is craziest that that
should have been a scandal. Like why was
that the case? But everyone just kind of
moved on.
>> But I I don't know what we're meant to
be excited about next. Okay.
>> GPT6.
>> Well yeah it's just but also what's that
meant to because GBD5 was this weird
kind of like myth in the future. It's
like when we reach this everything will
get better. But now it's like we're
going to get Claude Sonic 5, I guess.
>> Yeah, whatever. I mean, you're going to
get the next one. But that's the thing
is like if it's just continued marginal
improvement, what am I
>> Yeah.
>> What are we doing?
>> It doesn't m It doesn't make me That
does not make me excited. And yes, it
can save software engineers typing time
and whatever. I mean, if you know what
you're doing, you can get a lot done. I
guess that's fine. If that's the way you
like to work, if you like to type stuff
in and wait on loading screens and get
your code out and review it, that's a
way to do programming. That's fine.
Yeah. And it's
>> and it's literally fine. I'm actually
like I sound super sarcastic, but like
that's literally fine.
>> No, but that's literally fine would be
if this was a 10 billion industry. If
they were selling it as like the
equivalent of virtualization or like
some side thing to the greater cloud
comput infrastructure, not
>> the entire future revenue engine cuz it
isn't.
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, and and so I,
you know, I run a business and
>> I I think that so a thing that startup
people say is they say like you have
product market fit, which is like, oh,
your product is good.
>> Yeah.
>> If like one of the criteria is if it
went away today, would your users like
throw a fit?
>> Yeah.
>> Would you throw a fit if Chat GPT got
uninstalled from your phone? You
wouldn't. But like, you know, would the
general person be that upset? And I
don't think they would. I think that
there would be a contingent of people
who'd be very upset
>> if if you have a like parasocial I don't
know if that's the right word if you're
like in love with your GPT then that
would be like a death in your family and
that's very sad for you
>> which would be horrible and indeed they
but it's like I've been saying this for
a while it's like and I say it to
boosters it's like if this disappeared
would your life change would would it
really change that much like well I used
it for baby names I've used it for it's
like
>> you you named your baby after I'm just
saying like if you
>> got a baby name from chat GPT. That's
>> That's tough.
>> Yeah, that's really bad. The more that
was said to me by a booster and the more
I think about it, the more I'm like,
"Brother,
>> one day your child is going to hear
this."
>> Cuz they all they do is they sell a book
called like the baby name book and it
has like a list of names in it.
>> I don't [ __ ] know. Read some books.
Like just think about it.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm going to one of the most important
choices, the identity of a future human.
I'm going to send it to incorrect Google
search. Yeah,
>> it's it's depressing, but it's also
quite funny because I feel like this era
has really revealed who just doesn't
know anything about [ __ ] it. Like the
people who are just like will believe
anything or will just believe that they
are smart at something because a machine
told them they are. Yeah.
>> That they got this.
>> You You got this. So, someone online
posted, "I can't wait for the day when
there's an AI agent that'll tell me when
my friend's birthdays are."
>> [ __ ] There's no other way to do that.
There's no way to do that.
>> I I don't have like some kind of
calendar.
>> No, no, it's got to be a reminder.
>> And so that's like that's what's
happening now is that in the like
startup space or just people building
technology. It's like well we're going
to get or or if you like watch the ads
on the NFL or whatever it's like you are
going to
agent is going to do the thing that
software is supposed to do like
software. So, like I got sold at one
point accounting software,
>> right?
>> That was AI, right?
>> Okay. The AI is going to categorize your
transactions.
>> Sure.
>> Can't do it.
>> I I bought I was at a conference and it
was, you know, whatever May May 20th,
May 21st, May 22nd.
>> I I go to Starbucks, I go to pizza, I go
to a thing. They're all travel related
expenses. One is travel and then the the
Starbucks is client conversation.
>> That's what I decided.
>> Client conversation. And so I I I had a
meeting with this the founder of the
thing and I was like, "Dude, like what
are you what is what is this?"
>> What did they say?
>> Well, they were just like, "Oh, you
know, sometimes it makes mistakes. We
should get on that."
>> [ __ ] yeah.
>> So that's that's my accountant.
>> Yeah. You My whole thing is I know it's
I think with all of this AI coding stuff
in the big in the big tech realm,
something's going to break. Something
really But someone's gonna someone's
going to do something stupid.
>> Yeah. Well, so so back to Replet. I
mean, I I think that they I kind of hope
that they're I don't know if they hope
that they're first to go. I mean,
whatever. They're nice people working
there. So, that's the unfortunate thing
is there are nice people working at
these.
>> There are people with jobs who like it
will involve people
>> like I I don't I wouldn't want to ask
for people to get laid off who are
hardworking people and some of them are
like cool scientists who have studied
hard and they're like nice people
>> and it's the grim part of all this is
like people are going to lose [ __ ]
jobs. But it's I mean it's the
executives who you know obviously pissed
me off who just lying through their
teeth right I mean those people deserve
to and but you know they're never
actually going to have a bad outcome
happen to them
>> this which is why we need to write
things to put their name because at some
point there needs to be a record of this
>> of course. Yeah.
>> So I'm going to wrap it there. Charlie
where can people find you?
>> So uh I have a blog blog.chariemeyer.co
which is like where kind of my writings
go but I'm also trying to set up a
newsletter. So that's
csmyer.substack.com
and my name is spelled m y.
>> Hell yeah. And I of course am Ed Zitron.
You can find me on the internet at
google.com. That's where I live. I will
put all the links to Charlie's stuff of
course in in the episode notes, but it's
good for you to hear it now. And yeah,
should have a monologue coming up this
week. I know I did an announcement where
I said I was going to have a big story
that is on hold, not because anything
went wrong, but because the scale of the
information I got has changed
dramatically. uh when I eventually talk
about this, it'll be a lot of fun.
Otherwise, catch you soon.
Thank you for listening to Better
Offline. The editor and composer of the
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mat tso
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