In this episode of Futuristic, Cam and Steve discuss OpenAI’s groundbreaking o1 model and Advanced Voice Mode. They voice concerns over social media’s impact on youth, touching on legislative measures and the Instagram Kids launch. Cam talks about how he’s used ChatGPT on his weight loss journey. The episode also looks back at the 1973 launch of the first personal computer, MCM 70, the relevance of Moore’s Law and Marvin Minsky, using of AI to digitise handwritten notes and Sam Altman’s vision for The Intelligence Age.

02:36 The Impact of Social Media on Youth
15:46 Using GPT to lose weight
21:07 OpenAI’s New Model: O1
34:31 Advanced Voice Mode in ChatGPT
41:03 The Future of AirPods: Integrating AI
43:54 OpenAI Leadership Changes and Implications
46:43 The Evolution of Silicon Valley
56:45 The Bystander Effect and Social Media Legislation
01:03:43 Sam Altman’s Vision for the Intelligence Age
01:16:15 Technology Time Warp: The First Personal Computer

FUT 30

[00:00:00 ] SS: Freestyler, futuristic microphone, straight from the top of our domes. We got the Cam Reilly, a Rocker microphone and a Sammotron, s s s s s sammotron.

[00:00:17 ] CR: Uh, welcome back to Futuristic, uh, episode 30. I think this is, it’s been a while, Steve. Our last show was August 3rd. We’re recording this on August the, uh, September the 27th. So almost two months since we’ve done a show and partially because you had a lot of stuff going on, partially because I had a lot of stuff going on and partially because there was a lot going on in the.

[00:00:47 ] CR: AI world up until about a week ago, and then everything happened. So, you know, look, there’s a lot of, I follow a lot of, uh, AI based YouTube shows and podcasts. And a lot of time it’s like watching cable news. There’s just. filler stories happening and I’m like, really, this isn’t really, there’s a lot of gossip, there’s a lot of rumour, there’s a lot of minor news and I’m like, nah, I’m not going to waste your time, my time, our audience’s time with minor stuff.

[00:01:21 ] CR: I’m really here to talk about the big stuff and so if there’s no big stuff, I’m saying, we don’t do a show. There’s nothing really worth talking about, but of course in the last week or two, the big stuff has hit. Stuff that had been rumoured for a long time. Some of it finally landed and it’s definitely worth talking about.

[00:01:40 ] CR: What do you think, Sammartino?

[00:01:43 ] SS: You made a really good point on filler stuff in media. And so much of our social feeds are like that as well. And even podcasts that I like to listen to, I’m like, yeah, it was a whatever episode, cause they got to do one every week. You know, it’s all the game is frequency. We used to say that columns need to be filled and now it’s, you know, pixels need to be put across screens, but I like that we’re pretty straight up on it, but definitely a lot happening now.

[00:02:09 ] SS: And it feels like. AI has kind of crossed another bridge where it’s starting to piece together the islands and the archipelago of intellectual riches that AI is becoming.

[00:02:25 ] CR: Whoa, there’s some wordsmithing from Steve Sammartino. It’s beautiful. There’s a, all those years of getting up on stage, spitting your rhymes. Uh, let’s, before we get into the news, Steve, let’s, uh, talk about what’s been going on in your personal life from a futuristic perspective. What do you want to, how do you want to start off the show?

[00:02:47 ] CR: What insights do you want to share with

[00:02:50 ] SS: I’ve got, got a few insights. My little boy’s been a little bit ill, um, which has kind of kept me out for four weeks. When he was ill, he was using his smartphone a lot because it was one of the only things where he could have a reprieve because he was quiet. Um, you know, without going into too much detail, couldn’t move around much at all.

[00:03:07 ] SS: Um, and. Yeah, talking to a lot of the doctors and, uh, and various psychologists and people recently, I think we don’t take social media’s impact on youth seriously enough. Now, I know that in Australia and in the U. S. they’re looking at passing legislation. I actually still don’t think It, despite them looking to pass legislation, know the potential serious impact this could have.

[00:03:36 ] SS: I feel like we might be heading to a quasi lost generation of sorts. The Australian government has looked to ban social media for children under the age of, I think it was touted as 14 and potentially 16. It’s got to be 18 because I’m convinced That this is potentially more dangerous than underage drinking or underage driving.

[00:04:02 ] SS: Uh, we know that children’s brains and certainly boys brains don’t develop till they’re about 27. The impact it has on the frontal cortex and the lack of ability to delineate what’s worth watching, the fact that the algorithms put them down wormholes of terrible information, uh, misogyny, uh, rude, Uh, get some even quick viral loops.

[00:04:25 ] SS: One of the other things that we see a lot is that the speed of content and the truncation of content length is having a really significant impact on I won’t be surprised if in 10 years we say, wow, that has really had a developmental issue on the youth’s brain and their ability to think and their ability to Maintain an attention span, which is required for a lot of things to function as an adult human.

[00:04:53 ] SS: Uh, it’s not just a joke and I’ll make something short and make sure you have a hook. Yeah, that’s all good to get views. Um, but a little bit like junk food, like alcohol or driving dangerously, I would be flummoxed. Um, if we don’t come back and find out that that’s really bad. I did one LinkedIn post which had so much resonance, um, which I, I said, and I’ll, I’ll read it pretty quickly for the audience here.

[00:05:20 ] SS: The words that I used was, I’m just going to say it. Social media could be more dangerous for our youth than underage drinking or driving. Both of which are age gated at 18. Kids spend five hours plus a day, which is a stat based on Australia, it’s probably more in some areas, on tech purposely designed to create addiction.

[00:05:37 ] SS: And I said that I’m, I’m going to write a manifesto on how easy this is to fix, which I’m going to do this week. And I’ve said that we just need the political and social will to do it, to care about our kids more than we do about corporate profits. And the reason that that’s really important is that it had like six reposts, more than 10, 000 views, hundreds of comments with.

[00:05:55 ] SS: Anecdotal stories of so many, uh, kids and families having major issues with this. And, you know, it’s touched me personally in my house. And we had kept my boy away from social media for a long time. And it really just opened my eyes. The conversations that I’m having are that this is really causing a whole lot of social issues.

[00:06:21 ] SS: So ironic, social

[00:06:23 ] CR: Yes. And I, and I see it at two different age levels, right? Cause my older boys, uh, are nearly 24 and Fox is 10. And Fox doesn’t have a device of his own, but he borrows our devices to do things with. He used to have a device, uh, for, for a couple of years, he had devices, but then he broke his last iPad and we said, that’s it, you’re not, not getting another one for a while anyway.

[00:06:51 ] CR: And so, but he borrows our things, but we, we try to limit. He’s a, like