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Prepare for holiday glimmers instead of holiday stress. Visit growtherapy.com/acast to get started today. 1:02 That's growtherapy.com/acast. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. [upbeat music] Hi, everyone. 1:17 My name is Boye Kolade, co-founder and president of The Future Party. And I'm Chris Autell, CEO and co-founder of Crosscheck Studios. 1:25 And welcome to The Future Forecast podcast, where we explore the intersection between business, technology, and entertainment. So we've done the research so you don't have to. 1:37 We're here to give our opinions about news topics and have a thoughtful discussion on the shifting landscape of our culture. 1:45 Today we're gonna talk about Meta, Microsoft, and two films about tech's most powerful men and how they're trying to make the films disappear. Damn. 1:57 I feel like, I feel like whenever I hear you say, "We've done the research so you don't have to," it just every time makes me feel like we're like, we're like the Chris and Boye GBT of- [laughs]... 2:12 of entertainment newsletter, you know? There you go. If you were to be like, "Hey, hey, GBT, give me the updates of entertainment," I feel like you'd be the, the, the... I actually wanna do that right now. 2:25 I'm not gonna lie. I'm so curious if I were to ask, did you... Which, what do you use? Uh, Chat or do you use- I use GB- Yeah, I use Chat. Will you ask Chat, and I'm gonna ask right now. Okay. 2:37 Uh, can we just do a quick, uh, what's the sentence we're asking? What are the, what are the top, what are the three top stories of today in the, uh, uh, touching the media landscape? 2:49 What are the top three stories of today in the media entertainment landscape? And I'm curious 3:03 if it's all boring bullshit, then never mind, but I just, I just wanna know, do we do a better job, Boye? Ha, we beat the system. We beat it. I wanna know what yours says. 3:12 Uh, quick question: did, um, what, what are you using? GPT or- Anthropic. Anthropic? Okay. Um- Or no, no. Claude, Claude, Claude, Claude. Claude. Okay, you go first while I look up mine. 3:24 Mine went, "I can't pull up today's headlines. My knowledge stops at the end of June 2026." I don't have web search. Don't know why that is. I definitely didn't turn that off. Uh, so that's insane. There you go. 3:36 We've already beat it. We've already beat it because I never did not allow it to use web search. So look at that. Me, me. That's shit. That's weird. For me, it was, um, uh, Paramount, David Ellison, 3:55 uh, and just how that's becoming a real deal, uh, Josh DeMarro cutting, uh, more people at Disney, and then more publishers fighting with AI companies. Yeah, I don't feel like that's a really great... 4:11 I don't think they really- Yeah... did it. That our topics are cooler. I think our topics are cooler. Yeah. Oh, yeah. [laughs] Oh, yeah. Well, let's get into it. [laughs] Let's do it. Let's do it. 4:22 Okay, so first up is Meta. 4:26 Man, Zuck just, he's like, he's like the cockroach that just continues and continues and continues to innovate, and, uh, himself and, uh, Meta, formerly known as Facebook, but he just had Meta Connect, and, uh, two really big things came from that. 4:47 One, he came out with 100 gram VR glasses with partnerships, uh, with Disney, ESPN, UFC, and, uh, as well as a new AI agent called, uh, Muse. It books, negotiates, and checks, checks out for you. 5:06 Uh, um, and, uh, it's on the surface, it's like, oh yeah, of course, you know, he's just launching new products, but there's a, you know, a couple pieces of innovation here. 5:19 One, we're finally getting VR glasses that are extremely light, right? 5:24 If you remember our past conversations about Apple Vision Pro and just VR in general, this is moving towards a world where VR may become as light as wearing glasses. And then, 5:37 um, he's doing partnerships with IMAX, Disney, E- uh, ESPN, um, so on and so forth for the VR glasses. Uh, and then with- Which is very cool. Which is very cool. Yeah. Um, anyways, okay. 5:52 So, uh, it's gonna cost $1299.99. Uh, Apple Vision Pros was extremely more expensive. Um, and so that's one piece. On the, the Muse side, this is interesting. It's basically a personal AI agent. 6:11 Um, it sends emails, books travel, fills forms, negotiates on your behalf, opens a browser. He's really coming after- 6:19 In a sense, Anthropic and OpenAI, and I honestly wouldn't bet against Zuck be- You know, the one thing that I think is interesting is everyone already uses Facebook for social, and so, you know, for Zuck, it's like turning on a button in a way. 6:37 Um, so we'll see if the adoption's gonna be, you know, widespread, but, um, he's definitely making moves. Yeah. I- as someone that's... 6:46 I, I, I don't know if you've used Muse yet, but as someone that has, I'll say it's a great, uh, you got my endorsement here, at least, at least for now. It's a great product. I, uh, and I'll give you my why. 6:59 As someone that has both used Chat, Claude, and Muse now, I've not- Yep... I've not stepped into the shoes of using Groq. You know, each one of these products you can sync with your email. 7:13 Each one of these, uh, have agen- uh, um, agentic capabilities. 7:19 For those who have not used the, uh, used agents yet or have used agentic capabilities on your GPT or, or, or, or, or on your, um, AI, uh, assistants or, or, or aids, so to speak, uh, agents essentially have the capability of being given tasks and operate, uh, without the need of instruction. 7:44 Uh, post the initial instruction you've given, if they have a task- Oof... and it's a task that is, uh, that is achievable, uh, just by way of search and with the right approvals, it will achieve it for you. Mm-hmm. 7:57 Example, I got screwed on a American Airlines flight. Shout out, shame to American Airlines. [laughs] Uh, it's really not their fau- it's not their fault at all. I... 8:07 Coming, coming back from, uh, my vacation, I got stuck on the tarmac of the Heathrow Airport, and- Oh, brutal... it's... Oh, it sucked. 8:17 This was during, like, the hack or energy shutdown or whatever, uh, in Heathrow, and everyone as you know, like, Heathrow is a huge airport. It... So- Mm-hmm... 8:25 whenever that day was, every single flight after 12:00 PM or, like, 2:00 PM was shut down, totally, uh, lost. They... And then everyone had to be, be put up in hotels in London. I'm still waiting for my money back. 8:39 But you have to... 8:40 You know, American Airlines, you have to file for your, your recoupment or for your reimbursements, and if you stay overnight and need travel credits, et cetera, what you have to do is you have to submit your expenses, your receipts- Mm. 8:53 Yep, yep... et cetera, your hotel folio, your travel, whatever, to get reimbursed. I literally just gave Muse that task and asked Muse, "Will you please file?" Here's... 9:06 The only two things it needed from me was my American Airlines login and the flight number in which I flew, or the, the, the, uh, the, whatever the, the booking code was, and it went in, and it filed all of my receipts. 9:23 It filed, uh, it filed all of my complaints. It detailed everything. It asked for my approval to submit, so I still had- Mm. Oh, wow... the capability of... Uh, it, all it, all it did was prompt me. 9:34 It took its time to do it, uh, and prompted me for the approval of properly sending it detailed the entire email, the attachments, showed me everything, and I just said, "Proceed," sent it through, said, "Oh..." 9:48 And then, and then re-prompted me to say, "Do you want me to send a check-in to make sure that you're aware when you receive an email or a reminder in addition should we not hear back in three weeks?" That's amazing. 10:02 But... And, and it's done it, and it, and it stays on task, and it's fantastic. So, um, this is actually very pertinent because I, I'm working on this with, like, a personal assistant right now, and, um, 10:19 I don't wanna say too much [laughs] but, um, let's just say I'm very intrigued at, uh, an AI agent basically doing this work. Uh, w- so what did you do? 10:29 Did you just give it access to your desktop, and then where is it getting the receipts? No. Did you have to forward the receipts? No access to desktop or anything. 10:37 So here's the difference, and here's why Muse, here's why, at least for now, I believe the product is better than, than- Yeah... other agents currently. Mm-hmm. 10:46 Or at least, at least what, what, what Meta's doing right with this version of agentic is, or for agents, is baseline tasks. It's, it's very much built for every ma- the every man. 11:02 Like, I, I think that what every single time they've created a product, it's cost-effective, uh, or the best... It, it's, it's the most utilitarian. Like, they wanna be as available for, for all people as possible. Yep. 11:16 And so, like, it's not that Anthropic or Chat don't have these capabilities, but for Claude, for example, you need to have... You asked the great question. Do you have your, your laptop open to perform these duties? 11:33 I don't need a separate server. This all lives on Meta's servers or on Muse's servers. Mm. It has its own separate interface, and it's performing all of these duties on its own space. 11:48 For those not aware and have not dipped their toe fully in, if you're using Anthropic, if you're doing, if you're using Claude, for example, and you're doing Claude agent work or- Mm-hmm... work space, 12:00 you need your laptop open, and it needs to have the capability of ac- i- interfacing or using your computer interface. 12:10 So you have to have a computer or CPU or a laptop open because the AI is literally going through all of the steps as if, like, you are clicking on these things with a mouse. 12:22 It is doing that but using your computer setup. With Muse, that is not the case whatsoever. So how did it get your receipts? Did you just say, "Here they are," or tell it where to look? 12:34 It asked, it asked me, it asked me for them, and then I just sent them snapshots of those, of those receipts. That's cool. And so that's all- Okay... I had to supply. Now, if I wanted, I could have set up... 12:45 I, I, I could put my bank account in connection to it or, or whatever account, and it would do that. It also pulled the folios, the... It, it had already pre-pulled the folios from my email. 12:58 Ooh, so it already had access to the email. So it may recognize that I have London, London. Yeah. That is... Okay. This is interesting. 13:04 One thing I feel that Zuck might have going for him right now is leading the charge for AI agents, especially for personal use, right? Yeah. 13:15 Um, because, you know, I would argue to say most people using AI agents right now, it's very corporate. It's very much open AI or GPT. It's still nas- nascent, I would say. 13:29 I would say when you look at the curve, it's the power users. Mm-hmm. And, you know, Meta has access to billions of people. 13:38 And so if m- if they launch Muse infused in Facebook, IG, WhatsApp, you know, and all of a sudden you have an AI agent at your disposal, that might become a watershed moment for people leveraging AI, not just for, you know, copy-pasting, you know, hand therapy, but actual, like, tasks, you know? 14:00 Yeah. Uh- The beauty, the, again, beauty of it, especially as it unlocks the, the meta of it all, or, like, the, the, the... You mentioned the word marketplace. Yep. 14:12 When you unl- when you unlock your brain to the idea of what tasks you can ask something to do or someone, the same way- Mm-hmm... 14:20 you would ask an assistant, I can now share a photo of an article of clothing that I want to ascertain. 14:29 If I ask the agent to find that piece of clothing for purchase, it can find it, and it can find the retail version, the one that's available now at X offer. 14:44 But I can also ask for it to search on eBay or any other, uh, uh, secondary sales space, and it will- Wow... 14:54 find not that exact photo, but if I-- as long as I've given it the information of what it is, it'll find that or something similar, and it searches eBay, searches Facebook Marketplace. 15:08 So it's really, if you think about, like, like, things like that, can you imagine- That is wild... if I need an-- I need a ottoman. 15:15 How many people go on Facebook Marketplace and are just constantly, like, searching and scouring and doing, and, like, the time consumption that is, like, when you're like, "I'm gonna go search for that"? 15:24 If you just told them, "I want a..." Still waiting in line again? That's time you will never get back. Save time and money with stamps.com. Over four million businesses have skipped the line with stamps.com. 15:41 Join them to save up to 90% off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds. 15:50 Get $20 in free postage when you sign up for the pro plan at stamps.com/blackfriday2026. Terms and conditions apply. Oak, uh, chair that is three feet by two feet. Bad dimensions. 16:07 I don't know what, what... And I need it in, uh... And I need it at the price point of $200. It provides all, you know... And I want 100 options. It'll pull those 100 options. Wild. 16:20 Okay, I need to be- Yeah, game changer... like you and start to use AI agents. That's everyone's homework, AI agents. Um- No, no, no. Don't use AI agents. Don't use them. Only leave it to me and Boye- [laughs]... 16:31 and other people. Let us, uh, get ahead of the game and, and, and- Get a head start. [laughs] Stay... Yeah, get a head start. Y- yeah. Give us 10 seconds. [laughs] Count to 10 and then start. Okay. 16:44 Yeah, it'll be too late at 10 seconds. Yeah. Literally too late. Um- You ever get those clips, you ever get those clips? 16:48 Now, I- I'm getting clips now of this is the moment where, uh, this is the era AI and agentic work is going to create the next round of multi-million, uh, multi-million/billionaires, and I'm like, "Argh, I need to be one of them. 17:04 How do I do it? What do I do? Ahhh" [laughs] I'm getting courses hawked to me on, on Instagram of just, like- Yeah, but that's, that's- Yeah... that's a scheme. That- Kinda, yeah... that, that's a scheme. 17:14 I mean, like, don't get me wrong. There is education there, and it's great. Yeah. Like, to be taught, uh, you know, how to do, how to use AI. But- Mm-hmm... when you see those ManyChat here's how to do my... 17:26 Example, I got fed this. If, uh, and for any of our listeners, I'm sure that they've seen this as well. 17:31 When, uh, one, one of the big, like, f- uh, one of the big viral moments was someone recreated Tony Stark's, uh, AI setup, uh- Yeah... and call... What, what is, what is Tony Stark's AI, uh, character name? 17:48 Oh, um, Jarvis. What is it, what is it, Max? Jarvis, yeah. The, the whole thing- Yeah... 17:52 is like get Tony Stark's Jarvis setup, uh, because the idea is that they created a system where it was both visually interesting, but also- Yeah... 18:00 you could interface with it, and the AI would recognize itself as Jarvis but also speak in, like, a English accent. In ManyChat- Yeah... they, they basically gave you the whole schematics of how to do it. 18:13 Uh, all you had to do is, like, type in Jarvis, uh, via MetaChat, or sorry, by way of ManyChat. They then got- Uh-huh... 18:20 all of your information, got your, got you on their newsletter, and then they're like, "Hey, for $100, here's the course," or, "Here's the information of how to do it." Um- Yeah... and that shit adds up. 18:30 That shit adds up. Yep, yep. I don't hate the player- Wow... I hate the game, but it's smart. [laughs] Good on them. 18:39 Well, um, you know, we're talking about ads, and, um, we have another massive tech company, um, Microsoft, who is, uh, innovating in the ad game. 18:52 And, um, basically, uh, they just patented a new system, and here's what it does. It's, it's in the video game world. 19:01 Uh, what it, what this patent does is it's a system that freezes your, your video game at the end of a boss fight. 19:10 So, uh, oh, sorry, at the end of a boss fight, cut scene, or loading screen, it runs an ad and pays you back in ad-free play time. 19:21 So, um, basically, um, you know, Microsoft owns Xbox, so imagine a world where, uh, they're giving away free games, and in the middle of, let's say, Call of Duty or Halo, you just beat a level, and all of a sudden you get an ad for, I don't know, Hinge, 'cause it's like you gotta get off the video games. 19:45 Um- Damn, that's crazy. Right? Hinge. Do you feel lonely? Are you playing games for, for eight hours at a time? Want someone to play with you? Yeah. Hinge. Uh- We'll, we'll put those hinges right back on the door. Yeah. 20:00 So look, there, there's a lot of like- [laughs] The, um- Max is laughing in the background, sorry. He's just laughing at like my stupidity... 20:07 there's a lot of like technical nuances, but I think the more interesting part is like what a move this is, right? Yeah. 20:15 Like, when you think of it, this feels very Black Mirror, and almost like a, "Duh, I can't believe this wasn't happening already," in a way. Um, but this is like, this is huge. This is a, this, this could very well be 20:30 a massive new revenue stream, not just for Microsoft, because you know everyone else will end up doing this. Um, and then I, my question is how much will the consumer care, or will they have the option? 20:43 Maybe even it's gonna be now like Netflix, where you're either subscribing or you're doing the freemium version in order- Right... to not have ads during your game play. I, I have to imagine there's like an opt-in. 20:54 Uh, if you're, it, no, hearing that they're going to offer you credits or the capability of like gaining credits for watching, no different... I mean, there's kind of a version of this happening now, right? 21:05 Like, if you play, if you play any of those like freemium games that are like app store app games. Mm. 21:11 And like, I, I just remember like I'll play Sudoku, and if I've, if I fail three times in a row, if I've ruined the, my streak, it gives you the ability to be like, "Watch this video and you can get one more try," right? 21:26 Like- Mm... so you get like one life back in a way. I have to imagine that there's an, it's an opt-in to, to, to use that or to do that, 'cause they have to be charging brands a s- a decent amount. 21:38 But what's so in- I think what's more fascinating is I imagi- like so many developers and so many cr- so many developers now have worked so hard to, to eliminate loading screens, right? Mm. 21:52 Like, when you think about, when you think about a lot of these open world games now, the way in which they've been building it is how do you ensure that there is no cut scene or there is no... 22:04 Like, there, it's just so open face that it's constantly rotating, and so like- Mm... maybe you've opened a door and you've set something up, but there's no, there's no load. 22:13 And I'm curious if that's gonna redefine or re-clarify or, or if we'll see people move backwards or di- if developers will digress from... 22:24 Not digress, they'll regress from being an always on, no load screen capability to now wanting to implement that moment for ads to buy in or that real estate so that they can make more money on top of. Ooh. Yeah, yeah. 22:40 That's interesting. Well, I will say, you know, also just to be clear, currently Xbox does have a, an ad-supported cloud gaming, um, service that they're testing. 22:52 Um, now my understanding is, uh, before you play that it'll do like two minutes of pre-roll ads, right? 23:03 Um, so not necessarily like in the, it, within the game play itself or, or like a pause in the game play, but more so almost like when you, before you watch a YouTube video, right? It's like, 23:15 you know, or s- or sometimes HBO, right? Like, "Hey, here's your ad for two minutes now." Right. Right, right, right, right. "Go do your thing." You know what I mean? 23:22 Um, so yeah, I, I mean- I don't know what I prefer though. What would you prefer? Do you want it upfront or do you- Yeah, I was gonna ask you, um, as well as the resident gamer. Um, but like 23:37 I'm just thinking like imagine like, I don't know that I would ever play this game, but imagine playing like Silent Hill or- Yeah... or maybe something better like Star Wars, and then like you just get an ad. 23:49 Like, it just feels like it'll take you out of the game play a little bit. Um- Yeah. I, I, I get that. 23:55 Uh, ironically enough though, you know, you know, you know what we, you know what it made me think of when, uh, I had to like sit on it and think about it last night, and it reminded me, you know, with these load screens, a lot of the time when, uh, you know... 24:10 If, if you ever played Skate or Spider-Man or, I'm trying to think of like other big graphic games. A lot of times like when you're waiting for the load scene- Mm-hmm... 24:22 like what the developers would do and have done is it's just like a little mini like- For Skate, I believe it was like, or, or Tony Hawk, it was just like a little skate park Yeah, Tony Hawk Pro Skater. 24:32 Yeah And you could like... But with the joysticks you could move the skateboard around- Mm... or you could play with it. Or for like Super Mario, you could mess with his face and screw his face up. Mm. 24:42 Not, and I don't mean N64 where you could do it, it was more like when you're like waiting in, in the room, like waiting in a loading room, and you were bored. Mm-hmm. It was like, mm. 24:50 You could like just do just random stupid- Do different things, yeah... very simple things. Yeah. 24:56 Uh, and so I just remember like, 'cause in that, and maybe this is like a little bit old school, I just, you'd be bored just like, mm, joysticks. Yeah. Moving the joysticks, making- What if it was an interactive ad? 25:07 Yeah. That could be interesting, too. It's like a mini-game ad that you're playing. Yeah. It's like a game inside a game that you're playing. Um- Yeah. Oh, man. 25:15 I feel like a lot of creative executives, uh, would have a heyday, uh, with that. 25:19 Um- But not to get so off topic, but speaking of ads, I don't know if you've been exposed to any of this or, or, uh, have, have stumbled upon any of this, but TikTok has been... There's, there's... 25:32 I've started to stumble upon unskippable ads- Whoa... which are really frustrating. Like- That's scary, actually... 25:40 you can, you, you get your op- you get your open placement, you start scrolling, and as you scroll, what I've stumbled upon is they're technically skippable, but the, what, what, what, what transpires is you'll scroll up and an ad will pop up kind of like a game ad, 25:58 but it's for like real shorts or a random... It's like a, it, it's always for like a mini, like vertical shorts type system or new experience. Yeah. 26:10 And the way the screen pops up is it's not like there's an X that you can just click out or there's something blocking. 26:17 It like forces you to listen or see the ad for three seconds, and then you're having to like find where on the screen you can click it out, and a lot of the times it doesn't allow you to. Yeah. 26:30 So you just have to like... What, what I've found is I have to like 26:33 not delete, but like swipe, like, like get out of the ad, delete the ad, or delete the, the a- you know when you like swipe up on the ad to like res- or on the app to reset it? Uh-huh. And then open it back up. 26:45 It's so interesting, like the apps are p- they're playing with our minds, boy. They are, man. These, these apps are playing- Yeah. They're-... with too many ad ideas. 26:54 [slurping] We're, we're gonna, the next topic is also about ads, or at least one of, one of the... It's a two-parter. So, um, we gotta dive into this. 27:05 Um, now this, this to me is, I wanna preface this by saying I'm actually genuinely a little scared when I think about this. But, 27:14 um, recently there's been a couple movies, um, that are, um, you know, being marketed, they're coming out soon, about titans of industry. 27:26 Uh, one being Musk, um, directed by Alex Gibney, who did Enron and Going Clear, a big documentary filmmaker. Uh, this played at Toronto and, um, it got a lot of sort of, um, press around it. 27:42 Um, and the second- Also, also stories that have been very clearly having very clear opinions- Yes... about the individual that is the subject. Yes. Right? Mm-hmm. Yep. 27:55 Um, and the other one being, uh, um, the, the movie coming out soon, Artificial, um, [lip smack] uh, directed by Luca, uh, Guadagn- Guadagnino. I don't know if you've ever pronounced his name. Hope I did that right. 28:12 Yeah. Guadagnino. Luca Guadagnino. I love it. Um, which is, um, about, uh, basically Sam Altman and, uh, s- sort of the rise of OpenAI. And in the case of- Andrew Garfield, if I'm not mistaken, is playing Sam. Yes. 28:28 He's, he's, yep, he's starring in it, 100%. Uh, so it'll be interesting to see. But in the case of, of, um, Musk, uh, the, the producers have been trying to market the film on YouTube, TikTok, Meta, 28:45 X, and they are not allowing them to run the ads, um, even though it's not a political campaign, and they were, uh, rejected. 29:00 Now, Meta is saying the ads were rejected in error and have been, um, uh, restored and, and YouTube is sort of walking things back, um, saying, you know, uh, it was always on the platform. 29:15 But TikTok has not reversed, X obviously is not going to 'cause Musk owns it. 29:20 And what we're seeing here is, in a way, sort of this hampering of, dare I say, freedom of speech, uh, where, um, the people that control the engines are not allowing dissent, uh, for, for that. 29:38 Now, that, that's ad related. In the other case, um, we have, uh, Artificial, which was originally, um, produced and set to be distributed by Amazon MGM. 29:51 For some reason, Amazon got cold feet and essentially gave it to Neon, uh, to, to distribute, and now it's going to be released by, by Neon. And this is like a $50 million movie. 30:07 Um, Amazon financed the whole p-production. Um, uh, sorry, about 40 million, uh, 40 to 50 million. And, uh, we don't know the terms- This is what's reported, for clarity. Yeah. 30:18 That's reported mostl- I mean, obviously- Correct... not with marketing and et cetera. That is solely just the budget itself, 40 to 50. Correct. 30:27 And we don't know the full terms, but the rumor is that Neon just took worldwide rights with no minimum guarantee. And so the question is why? 30:37 You know, V- Insinuation is that Amazon is afraid of, uh, or buddies with, right, OpenAI, and this movie might paint Sam Altman in a light that he doesn't want to be painted. 30:54 So we are, again, like looking at it from 100,000 feet- Yeah... possibly in this place where we are seeing tech CEOs abuse their power. You know what, you know what's so interesting is 31:08 on the Musk's side, uh, like Te- uh, X not airing or allowing for the movie to get any attention via X, I get that. Mm-hmm. 31:19 On the basis of it, it, there, there's a wonky line that it could be perceived as political, right? Mm-hmm. 31:25 Like, uh, uh, you could argue political, I mean, I haven't seen it, so I don't know, but is there a, is there a, a slippery slope of defamation or a claim for defamation? 31:35 And so why are we gonna give our, our, um, not our railway, I guess, so to s- for- Mm-hmm... for lack of a better term, or our, our, our, why are we gonna let, let 31:45 something on my platform g- uh, uh, defame me or ruin my reputation? Uh, don't see a lo- I, I could also understand the same when it comes to the Zuckerberg movie. I'm curious if that's gonna- Yeah... 31:57 I, I can't imagine, you know, I see plenty of trailers for it, but I do not see any trailers play it on Instagram. Yeah. I gotta say, though, I don't know that I... The movie doesn't look interesting to me. 32:07 Sorry to say it. But you're not the only one. Yeah. [laughs] Listen, that, it doesn't look like a good movie whatso- but it's every single time I'm in the theaters and I see it, uh- Yeah... 32:17 uh, or see, see the, the trailer play, number one comment from everyone- Let me hear... "It looks horrible." Yeah. Which is, I, I, no offense Aaron Sorkin, like- Yeah... 32:27 shouldn't have j- it- Shouldn't be- You know what's so sad? What's sad is that we're talking about it not looking great or not like- Yeah... it doesn't seem interesting. 32:35 What a brilliant way for like everyone like, like it's crazy to be saying that when Social Network was so great, and yet here we are, and it's just, it's just not, uh- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 32:49 Well, what's interesting, you mentioned Social Network is so great, and you know, I, I, I don't remember how Zuck was during that time when it came out. 32:59 But look, like if anything, that movie made him more popular, right? Yeah, agreed. You know, more polarizing. I th- more people probably loved him, more people probably hated him, but it didn't end Facebook, right? 33:13 So, you know, for me here, I'm just like, guys, like in this situation, all press is good press. I think, I think personally Musk is too big to fail right now. 33:24 Like is a four-hour movie painting him in a bad light gonna ruin his, like wealth? I don't think so. And so to me it's just interesting. 33:32 One more thing I want to make sure I, I mention, um, on the Sam Altman side, what's curious about this is that four months before this decision to let go of Artificial, Amazon made a $50 billion investment into OpenAI. 33:48 Mm. Well, there you go. [laughs] So it's kinda like, uh, here we go. There you go. There you go. I don't know. Now, now, I mean, now we really know. I mean, now, now you really know. Now you really know. Yeah. 33:59 But look, this, this- Also, also with all this innovation going on, you know, what... You think about Amazon, you think, uh- Yeah... think about all these tech platforms. 34:07 Tech, of course, does not want tech to be perceived in any light of being dangerous or being evil. Yes. And of course, when we're in a moment in time where like so much of what is being discussed is- Yeah... 34:18 you know, AI, uh, we, what, like two episodes ago we were talking about is AI gonna end the world? Mm-hmm. The fact that so much of that conversation's happening is pretty scary. Yeah. 34:30 I think in all, um, to me, this underscores the power of distribution and media and its role in our culture. 34:40 Um, one thing also just to keep in mind is a lot of the David Ellison, um, Warner Brothers AG hold up recently, a lot of people were pointing at the control the Ellisons would have over CNN, right? Mm. 34:55 And, um, you know, you pair that with how Trump has been sort of acting with barring CNN and political, et cetera, et cetera, you're getting into this world where, again, like for me, I'm a little terrified of this idea of censorship and how a lot of these platforms can censor just because they want to basically control us, you know? 35:20 Yeah. Speaking of control and censorship- Yeah... there's a great c- there's a cl- great clip that went out that I stumbled upon. Uh, it's of Kanye speaking to his team- Mm... 35:31 about how, he doesn't say this is how the world is run, but he essentially- Mm-hmm... breaks down each layer 35:39 of the hierarchy, um, which our world is made up of, and he is, he, he, uh, he goes, "There's the Medicis." Mm-hmm. He goes like V- Medicis, which are like Vanderbilts, et cetera. 35:54 Medici, M- they're, uh, the Medicis, the Pope, and the Church. Then comes the layer just below that, which is, uh, Trump, like the president and government. Mm. Status, the layer right below that being entertainment. 36:13 And- Wow... not to say that is or is not true, but to have a gem like that, just a thought-provoking gem like that thrown out by way of social media- Yeah... 36:27 very interesting to hear, 'cause when you think about the layers in which that's done. If, uh, you do some research if you're not familiar with the Me- Medici family, uh- That's what I'm literally doing right now. 36:38 [laughs] Like why are the Medicis at the top of this list? Yeah. 36:42 Uh, uh, they were very much a, a very prevalent- a well-known family in Italy, if I'm not mistaken, uh, that had like-- They were, they were the kings and queens. They were the, the most- But still powerful now? 36:56 Uh, I don't, I, I don't know the history, so I can't make, make any claims. But that was, that was-- I, I actually-- I don't have the history. I can't speak on it. 37:03 I'm only speaking to the clip in which Kanye has moments of... I think Kanye has phenomenal moments of clarity, hence his bipolar, uh, debacles. Again, not-- I'm giving him more screen time than... But, uh, whatever. 37:18 Kanye's a genius. I, I don't... And, and I will say it. So do with that as you will. Do with that knowledge as you will, our listeners. 37:24 But I think, uh, not the Kanye genius part, but like thinking about how the breakdown, uh, of, of the, the, the hierarchy and the systems and the, the decision-making happens. 37:34 But to know that Entertainment One was mentioned, but where it sits and is stacked, it's still great to be a part, but it also lets you know how the trickle-down occurs is very interesting, to say the least. 37:47 Well, I think that ding was our moment to, uh, get things going, uh, and wrap up and tell people we'll have to see them next week. So appreciate y'all tuning in. Uh, great topic. 38:02 Uh, my biggest takeaway is wait 10 seconds before you go get AI agents [both laughing] um, so we can get a head start. 38:11 Uh, and, um, go find us wherever you listen to podcasts and find us on social at boye, at Sawtelle, Chris Sawtelle, and we'll jam soon. See you guys. Peace. Peace. 38:23 [outro jingle] Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with stamps.com. 38:39 Print postage on demand and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to ninety percent with automated rate shopping. Over one million small businesses trust stamps.com. 38:49 Get twenty dollars in free postage when you sign up for the pro plan at stamps.com/blackfriday2026. Terms and conditions apply. 38:57 [outro jingle] This show is brought to you by The Future Party and Crosstalk Studios, produced by Chris Sawtelle, Boye Khaalade, and Paul York. 39:06 Special shout-out to our production team, Araceli Rubalcava, Max Goolen, Shannon Klein, and Eli Tafur.
