Transcript 0:00 Hey, we're Nick and Jack, hosts of The Best One Yet. Behind every episode, there's research, email, spreadsheets, and our shared Google Doc, the Headline Hammer. 0:07 With Google Workspace with Gemini, Google's AI is built right into the premium versions of tools we already use, like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. No new tools or extra logins, just personalized AI for the way we work. 0:18 That means less time on the work around the work, and more time finding the stories worth talking about. Get AI tools for work. Upgrade to Google Workspace with Gemini at goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. 0:30 That's goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. [musical sting] Wheelhouse DNA. [instrumental music] Hi, everyone, my name is Boye Kolade. And I'm Chris Sawtelle. 0:44 And welcome to the Future Forecast, a podcast where we explore the intersection between business, technology, and entertainment. Today we're looking ahead. 0:52 We're gonna talk about the rise in controversies of virtual influencers, how people are traveling abroad to see their favorite artists, and how Wall Street is betting on content creators. But first, let's catch up. 1:03 Let's do it, baby. It's been a week, I'll tell you that much. It has been a week. It's been a week. I feel like it's almost been a year with all the things going on in life. Oh, yeah? Are you getting some grays? 1:13 [sighs] Don't... Just because you see them- [laughs]... on the side of my head doesn't mean you have to expose me for it. I actually haven't even seen them. You, you're exposing yourself, bro. Maybe it was all a ploy. 1:24 You see what I did there? Maybe I just was trying to let the audience know that I'm getting older and wiser. Oh. Wow. I mean, I'm the one with how many hot takes on the board? You've got a decent amount. Three. 1:38 You know what, what, what, what will eventually be a fourth? Well, I'm not gonna ruin it. We'll get to the hot takes. Mm-hmm. But I don't know if you saw this, but yesterday Neal Mohan, 1:48 Mohan or Mohan, I wanna make sure I respect the CEO of YouTube's name. He wrote a column basically saying, "Hey, Emmys, take note, move aside. We gotta make sure that, that creators get nominated." 2:05 So, like, YouTube a part of the Emmys? Yeah. Interesting. I'm sure it was just a ploy to, like, get YouTube up there and, like, voted. But isn't that, isn't that what the Streamys and Webbys are for? K- You know what? 2:14 That is such a traditionalist comment. "Isn't that what the Streamys are for?" That's like, "Isn't that where, like, the little people go play?" Like, no. No. 2:23 Well, it's more so, like, more so to call out that there are awards that are given currently. They have their own awards. There's a bunch of them. Mm-hmm. It seems like he's advocating for, though, that 2:36 there should be a YouTube creator category for the Emmys, which kinda makes sense when you think of how powerful YouTube is, you know? He was advocating by proxy for YouTube- Yeah... 2:49 but very much it was an advocation for the creatives that happen to distribute on social media that the news cycle or that Emmy award-winning shows utilize to be successful. Example or case in point being 3:07 Carpool Karaoke. Mm-hmm. That's a YouTube segment. Yeah, that makes sense. So he's saying that sort of... He highlights Rhett and Link. He highlights- Yeah... actually highlights Karen X. Cheng, one of my clients. Nice. 3:19 [laughs] Eh. Uh, Michelle Khare, MrBeast. But what, how, where do you draw the line almost, right? From, like, random content creation to, like, this is, this should be, like, in contention for an Emmy. 3:36 Yeah, I, I think that is where- Yeah... the line i- needs to be. Yeah. It's a fascinating idea. Part of me is now, like, as you're bringing that up, I'm wondering was this their game plan all along, right? 3:49 Like YouTube TV as a Trojan horse. Yeah. Because he is speaking from a position of power now. Like, You- I don't know if you have YouTube TV. I never cared for it until my wife Ashley, she uses it. It has everything. 4:02 It's basically cable. Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, and we, we covered it earlier, the Disney Max Hulu package- Oh, yeah... that's gonna come together. Yeah. It's all going down. 4:13 Did you see in one of the articles coming out of the up-fronts, I think it was Kimmel basically saying, "We're just creating a crappier cable with more ads"? Yeah, it was, I think it was Kimmel. Oh, was it Kimmel? 4:26 Yeah, it was. It was Kimmel. "We're building one big ad-supported pile of shit." That's wild. I know, I know that Seth Meyers also did some, some big- Yeah. Speaking of piles of shits. stonks. Roaring Kitty, he's back. 4:42 Did you ever watch, what was the name of that movie? Dumb Money. It is Dumb Money. Dumb Money. And Seth Rogen's in it? Yeah. It's hilarious. I liked Dumb Money. I did, too. I watched it on the plane. Very informative. 4:54 I wonder why he came back. It's like Jordan or Favre or Brady going out of retirement and then back into it. Yeah. He, he got Dave Portnoy- Or Bob Iger. [laughs] He got Dave Portnoy, uh, into it. 5:06 Dave was following a lot of what, what, what he, uh, the gentleman was, uh, CryptoKitty- Yeah. Roaring Kitty... uh, Roaring Kitty, sorry. Roaring Kitty had d- been doing. 5:15 And Dave, just off the backs of Roaring Kitty coming out, was like, "I gotta get back in." Yeah. "I was, I was there. I was supporting. We gotta take these guys down." [laughs] He was like, "I..." 5:26 And, and you watch, like, just before it closed, Dave was like, "Can I get the call in? Can I get the call in?" And he, and he put in, and then it's up double. I wonder if the Reddit stock... 5:37 Like, people are talking about GameStop and AMC going back up. Yeah. Like, now that Reddit's a public company, I wonder if- Oh, that'll be interesting... 5:43 if, uh, it'll go up now that Roaring Kitty's, like, back in action. 5:47 For anyone not aware of Roaring Kitty or the movie Dumb Money, Roaring Kitty was a gentleman who is very well known for being in the subreddit WallStreetBets. WallStreetBets, yep. 5:56 And is very much, i- i- if you've been living u- living under a rock for the la- you know, during COVID- Like many of us, Roaring Kitty is attributed to being one of the big proponents of GameStop, literally- Basically responsible for turning it into a huge stock and making people millions of dollars. 6:16 Yeah. And not, and he himself did not sell Which I think is so important or had not sold- Yeah, maybe 'cause he wa- he kinda disappeared into existence for a long time. Yeah. So he could have held. 6:28 I, maybe he came out and he's still holding, I don't know. But yeah. He had multiple opportunities to sell and totally screw over all these people that he was saying, "Let's hold, let's, let's do it." 6:38 I, just for a very long time he never sold. Yeah. Which is a huge testament to like, just, just be, to be noted. Anyway, he's back. All right. Roaring Kitty's back. 6:48 [slurps] Well, we should talk about our first- Let's do it... topic of conversation. What is it, though? It is about virtual influencers. Oh, man. 6:59 Uh, there's been a rise, a rise of virtual influencers, AKA, you know, basically like digital personas, um, that sell products online, and it's kinda off the backs of the growing influencer economy. And, 7:15 you know, we've sort of been in the industry for a while, so we've kinda seen these types of influencers come and go. I think one of the biggest is Lil Miquela. Yes. Right? Um- She's been around for a while... a while. 7:29 I actually would say she was maybe the, the biggest and sort of the, the prophet or the, the leader of this trend. Yeah. And now that technology is more robust, it's, this is becoming a bigger topic of conversation. 7:45 Um, brands now are asking themselves whether they go with real influencers or virtual ones, or create virtual ones, right? For the sake of virtual influencer- Mm-hmm... 7:57 just as we look at this topic, I think it's important to differentiate. 8:00 Are we talking about virtual influencers as it relates to, like, CGI-modeled characters that could potentially still be lived by other individuals, like CodeMiko, if you're familiar? CodeMiko is a living human being. 8:16 She... Well, the c- the character's name is CodeMiko, but her, she, there, it's an avatar. The hu- uh, her human counterpart puts on a green screen suit- Mm... to bring the character to life. Yeah. 8:31 I, I would say it is more so the creator that is digital in nature. I think what you're talking about is interesting 'cause it was kinda Lil Miquela, too. 8:42 It's like humanoid real person, like projects themselves i- as a virtual- Yes... character. Um, I, I guess you could include them, but- 'Cause I see Lil Miquela a little bit more like AI. Correct. 8:56 Um- I just wanted to differentiate that. Are we talking specifically about AI versus- More AI. I assumed as such, but I thought for the audience we should differentiate. Yeah. 9:04 Well, 'cause the issue, uh, you know, as you kinda drill down into the, I don't know if battle is the right word, is brands see an opportunity to save tons of money- Yeah... 9:14 because they aren't dealing with a real human being. Yeah. Right? And so- Which is so ironic because the fact of the matter is the price point's not going to change. Yeah. It, it really won't. 9:24 If anything, it's just the ownership of the derivatives will change. I mean, it could... It's, it's interesting, like it could change potentially in the near term, right? 9:34 If an AI influencer, because it's so easy to create content, can charge a lower cost, but eventually I think it will probably just level out to be the same. 9:43 Well, it's cheaper if you're McDonald's and you're able to create your own in-house talent pool and then own those AI. Mm-hmm. But you're still gonna wanna do talent partnerships and jive into other 9:56 groups of culture, and so you're gonna still have to do talent partnerships. Yes. And by the way, like Lil Miquela, she was still expensive. Yeah. Right? 10:05 Like, because you're dealing with the company behind, behind the AI, not like, unless it's in-house. Yeah. 10:11 If you're not aware of Lil Miquela, for anyone, Lil Miquela had been an, uh, a music act that's been around now since COVID. 10:19 Basically was created by a g- uh, several individuals- Trevor McFedries, um, and his company Brud. Yeah. Yeah. Look at you. Yeah. Off the dome. Guys, if you didn't see this, you are a walking encyclopedia. 10:33 Yeah, you know, sometimes. Wow. But ultimately you feel, you feel that this isn't gonna be a thing? Like, do you feel like brands are going to totally eradicate real-life influencers and only work with virtual? 10:47 I don't, I don't think that'll be the case. I don't think that's possible. I don't see society willing to completely give up, or humanity, not society, but humanity- Yeah... 10:57 give up or, or, or give over, even for corporate greed. Yeah. I, I can't imagine being fully replaced. Did you hear that TikTok is reportedly developing- Yeah... an AI feature? Yeah. Uh, I did. I saw that. 11:11 I had qualms with it, just by... I understand staying ahead of it and wanting to create it, but that does give me concern. When I look at that, that's where I go, 11:24 if there were anyone that is not on the side of the creator, God, TikTok would kill me for saying this, I notice as an organization, though they have infrastructure to support the creatives, 11:38 of all of the platforms TikTok tends to be the one that is the most frugal with its offerings to creatives. 11:46 Meaning Snap, YouTube, and Instagram have been very supportive both financially in the experiences that they offer, but also, like, when selling or asking creatives to be a part of their initiatives- Mm-hmm... 12:02 they've paid them fairly well. Because they have products that they're acknowledging the, the trade-off of. Yeah. TikTok very much rides the fine line of, "We're TikTok, we're relevant." 12:14 And by way of that association, maybe they, they're not fair with the understanding of what you, you as a creative are equally offering them. Yeah. And so when, to see an announcement like them doing AI product, 12:32 it makes me go, "Wow, once again we're going to, off the backs of the creators that you've- Well-... that have helped build you or build your community, you're now going to try to replace them to make more money." Yeah. 12:44 Which I could very well see an uproar or an uprising where creatives end up leaving the platform because of it, a la Vine. Yeah. It's, uh, it's gonna be interesting to see. 12:55 It's just another example of how AI is really truly the disrupter. 12:59 And it's funny too, because so many people, I feel like, haven't been as like nervous about AI because a lot of young people are like, "I wanna be a creator." Mm-hmm. But now the creator job is being threatened, right? 13:11 So it's gonna be a wild, wild ride. But, uh, should we talk about, you know, the next thing? Yeah, let's talk about it. [slurping] So for all you Swifties in the world, there's something happening. 13:24 We're g- we're calling it European Swiftonomics. No, no, I can't do this. Yeah. I can't do this. European Swiftonomics, here we go. God, Taylor Swift is still in my news. Dude, more Taylor. 13:34 She Swift, she, she really changes economies, which is wild, and here's an example. Oh, man. 13:39 So she's got a, an international European tour right now, and people are traveling abroad in order to see her perform in her Era's Tour in Europe. 13:53 But the funny thing is, a lot of people did it domestically, right, but they were still paying the high ticket price. 13:59 So breaking it down, it's actually, people are, I guess, calling it a phenomenon, and they're calling it tour tourism. So you know how there's medical tourism? So think tour tourism. 14:09 And it's- Wait, medical tourism, I don't even know what that is... Oh, it's when, like, people in other countries go to, uh, different countries for better healthcare or cheaper healthcare. Understood. Yeah. Understood. 14:21 And they'll, like, travel, they'll stay, they'll boost that economy c- spending money, and so similar with touring, except you're going to see your favorite artist. 14:30 And so s- here's some stats here, 'cause, you know, this is our e- economics lesson right here. This is what they should teach in college, by the way. 14:38 So 20% of Taylor Swift's most recent concert tickets in Paris were purchased by Americans, and the next stop is Stockholm, Sweden, which is expecting 120,000 visitors from 130 different countries to visit the city for the show. 14:55 So that's- How is that cheaper? So well, okay- You're flying all the way over... think of it as like the same price, right? So you have, um, you know, huge ticket prices. 15:06 So let's just say it costs $1,500 to go to Stockholm. In the States, that's how much tickets were going for. 15:13 And so now you have $171 for an actual ticket to go see Taylor, way cheaper, and then you just spend what you would've spent in the States on a really great adventure. 15:25 I could spend 1,500 on one ticket or I could fly a round-trip plane ticket and a three nights in a hotel room in Europe and enjoy my favorite artist. 15:35 And by the way, speaking of hotel rooms, Airbnb rentals in the UK have seen a 33700% increase in rental searches. Wow. So it's like, it's a thing. It's a big thing. Will this become a trend? 15:49 Other artists that we might want to see, do we go, "Oh, like, it's gonna be more fun to go international"? I actually had another friend who actually I believe did go to Europe for Beyonce. 15:59 But not every, I feel like not every artist could maybe do this. I, I'm curious though, like, if you could go to one city and see one musician while you're there- Oh... which city and who would you choose? 16:12 I would say Daft Punk- Nice... in Tokyo. Nice. Nice, nice, nice. I like that. Little love to, like, the robot, the Robotcon universe. Yeah. They closed that restaurant down, I heard, so I'll never be able to see that. 16:30 I heard that too. I heard that too. I to- I literally recommended to, to a friend recently, and they're like, "It's closed." I'm like, "Dang." So you heard it here first. Live Nation, we're coming back. 16:38 We're bringing the robots back together. [laughs] Doing it live in Tokyo. We're- We'll do it live... um, you? I would say h- honestly, Japan, so Tokyo is also mine, but I think I would say Coldplay. 16:52 I think that would- Coldplay? Yeah, I like Coldplay. I, I, I don't, I, I mean, I hear they're phenomenal live. Yeah, they're great live. But haven't you seen them already? 16:59 Yeah, but like it, this is- You would do it again... this is tour tourism. So now I'm gonna marry one of my favorite acts with one of my favorite countries, put it together. 17:07 [slurping] [electronic jingle] Hey, we're Nick and Jack, hosts of The Best One Yet. Behind every episode, there's research, emails, spreadsheets, and our shared Google Doc, the Headline Hammer. 17:19 With Google Workspace with Gemini, Google's AI is built right into the premium versions of tools we already use, like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. No new tools or extra logins, just personalized AI for the way we work. 17:31 That means less time on the work around the work, and more time finding the stories worth talking about. Get AI tools for work. Upgrade to Google Workspace with Gemini at goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. 17:42 That's goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. [electronic jingle] All right, so n- we're talking about the next thing here, Wall Street, and how they really want in on the influencer economy. So- Wait, really? Yeah. 17:58 Like- Show me the money. Yeah. Give me the money, Wall Street. Yeah. Let it flow, baby. 18:03 So venture capital firms on Wall Street are- Wanting to invest in influencers in order to capitalize on the supposed $250 billion creator economy. 18:14 In fact, Goldman Sachs estimates that the creator economy will double and become a $500 billion industry by 2027. 18:24 And Wall Street apparently is seeing impressive numbers for businesses developed by popular creators, and so they're trying to find the next big thing. 18:34 Some examples that we, uh, probably all know, if you've been listening to this podcast, MrBeast Feastables Chocolate brings in nine figures in annual revenue. 18:43 Logan Paul's Prime beverage brand will likely hit $1.2 billion in sales this year. He's definitely getting the last laugh. 18:52 We've had seen recent investments from Highmount Capital, who infused $100 million into the YouTube trick shot group Dude Perfect. 19:01 The Chernin Group invested $37 million into YouTuber Doug DeMuro's Cars and Bids, so on and so forth. It definitely seems like a thing. Where's it all going? Can I, if I, can I chime in? 19:13 I know someone very close to the Dude Perfect deal, who very much was instrumental in making it all happen and doing the raise, and we will see 19:26 in the suc- coming off the back of that, so many more of these deals are gonna happen. Mm. So many more. Well, I, I don't mean to say so many more, I, I mean more to say that because of that deal, it has made 19:40 the market look so... look back at it and go, "Wow- Yeah... there's something here. We really need to- Yeah... get around it." Yep. I actually tried to... I've talked about it, and here I am just giving my ideas away. 19:54 On the back of TikTok potentially being banned- Mm-hmm... and I don't need to say potentially. Like, it, it obviously has already been banned. We'll see what happens. Yep. 20:04 I've made the suggestion of doing a raise and buying TikTok accounts from people. Hmm. Taking the gamble and taking the bet, buying people's TikTok accounts, and then sourcing said TikTok accounts later on. 20:19 Why would they sell them? Because they're getting out of the game? 20:22 Well, you might be a, say you're an influencer or say you were someone that was building it, and you're concerned about, you believe that TikTok is fully going away, and you're going, "Wow, like, I really can't make any money here." 20:32 Yeah. "What am I gonna do? Let me get out before- Yeah... I lose out- Yeah... entirely after I've worked so hard on this." 20:39 How do you leverage that content, though, if they're not consistently creating it- Well, you're-... without using virtual influencers? Well, at that point you then can re-pivot that... It's no different than buying, 20:49 when you're buying Dude Perfect's channel- Yeah... for example. They're, you're buying Dude Perfect's channel 'cause obviously you wanna keep Dude Perfect on the platform. And the catalog. 20:57 And the catalog, and then build out a, a, from it. Yep. But you can repurpose those channels. Either you'll see a huge drop-off, but if timed correctly, you could 21:11 just buy the channel and say, "I'm gonna pivot this channel. I'm really just buying it for the audience." Mm-hmm. 21:16 So say I buy a channel and I go, "Okay, well, I'm not gonna u- you're not gonna be attached to this anymore, so why don't I buy the two million followers on your TikTok account- Yep, repurpose it... 21:26 and it has, you have 60% female on that account. Yep. I have a face wash company that I wanna build out, or I have a media business I wanna start making content for. I get it. Yeah. So the interesting thing, you know, 21:42 Wall Street is, is more excited about this space, and we are seeing more creators build businesses. Night Media's r- pretty big on this. We talked a little bit about it with, you know, MrBeast leaving. 21:52 You have a business with, with Josh, uh, the big ones we just mentioned with MrBeast and, and Logan Paul. 21:59 But you know, I, I mentioned I was talking to, to Jack at Millennial the other day, and the q- the question is, does every creator need a business? 22:10 Because it, it almost feels like that's like the evolution of, of everything, right? I, I have a saying that I, I believe that the next rock stars are CEOs, right? 22:21 And so it's, it's interesting to see musicians, creators, once they've matured in their craft, it feels like the next big thing is to say, "I, I want a fashion label. I want a, you know, beauty cream. 22:34 I want a liquor company." And so if everyone's doing it, it almost doesn't become special, but it feels like that's the only path that people can go to be successful. 22:46 I think what's interesting, perhaps for the audience we have to specify, is when we say does every creator need a business, I think what we're intending to say is 22:55 does every creator need an additional business attached to their creative endeavors? Yeah, like a product to their content. And the answer there is no. 23:10 The ultimate question is where is the ceiling for the talent? Where is the... And, and, and really the ultimate question is where is the talent looking to go? 23:19 If the talent is trying to become a MrBeast level talent or a, or something similar to like The Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Ellen DeGeneres, or Jessica Alba, or Gwyneth Paltrow, the reality is there's only so much height you can get to by way of your personality when you're building out your, your character or building out your, your brand. 23:46 And the products or the businesses that one can develop are gateways to f- other communities, or gateways to new avenues to express yourself to your audience. Mm-hmm. So 24:05 Logan Paul doing Prime, very smartly- One, Prime was already, what we forget to say is Prime was already a successful business or was already a, a built business that they jumped into- Mm-hmm... 24:19 full running, fully fledged, and were able to jump on board at the right time. 24:22 And I'm not trying to take away from Logan or KSI, but more just to say that that was or- they were very s- if anything, it's, it's celebrating them and making a, a great business move. 24:33 But what, in, in it already being successful, what they also were able to acquire was financial means to brand partnerships with other creatives. 24:43 They had an excuse to go to UFC and an excuse to go to Patrick Mahomes to say, "Hey, why don't you s- let us sponsor you as a talent?" So they're now integrated into sports- Mm-hmm... where they weren't before. Mm-hmm. 24:59 Lo- this is, like, and- Well, they kinda were with the boxing. But Lo- yeah, they, they kinda were with boxing. Logan Paul wasn't a part of WWE yet. Yep. And so 25:08 those are s- and, and also I guess KSI had been doing soccer- Soccer, yep... tournaments. So they, they, they were fans of sports. Yep. 25:16 And by way of that, it was an easy way to say, "I play sports, so here's a brand that I could associate with." Yep. 25:22 I think, you know, we were talking about virtual influencers earlier, and I almost feel like the idea of the evolution of creators making products complicates this whole thing now. 25:34 Because as an individual, you can start a 25:38 AI influencer, garner enough attention and brand loyalty and, and use that to f- to create any product that you want, you know, and not have to worry about talent, you know, doing this or that or whatever. 25:53 And so I, I'm interested to see, because at the, fundamentally I feel like the reason why this is a big thing comes down to distribution, and we've probably talked about it before. 26:04 You look at the big companies, w- I'm just gonna use Red Bull, McDonald's, right? For so long they had to co-opt creators. Yeah. Right? And, uh, they started with the product and then, 26:18 then did distribution, whereas creators are distribution. And so at, it's almost like it's all sort of forming together. 26:27 It's like creators are businesses and businesses are creators, and I think that's probably what Wall Street is seeing is like, "Oh, like, I'm not, I'm not really inve- just investing in Logan Paul and KSI. 26:39 I'm investing in the next Red Bull." Yeah. Right? "I'm investing in the next See's Candy," you know? Blah, blah, blah. [slurps] Okay, so it's hot take time. Hot take time. Take time. [air horn] [laughs] All right. 26:55 I went first last time. You did. You did, and maybe the time before that. [laughs] And maybe the one... Um, so hot- Are, are you giving me the ability? Yeah, yeah. Go first. Uh, well, thank you. 27:07 What's your hot take today? My hot take today, similar to what we've been talking about, AI, virtual influencer, my prediction is that, and, and coming off of the back of the Drake and Kendrick battles, 27:23 which Kendrick clearly won, I believe that we will see a label or an estate announce that they will be doing an AI album. We will see an AI album 27:40 announced or released- Oh, I like that... in the coming year. That's a good one. That's a very good one. I don't, I'll keep it very broad. 27:47 That could be someone living, but I think very highly that it'll be more an estate- Yeah... wanting to take, uh, take action. Yeah, yeah. Uh, this might be one of your best hot takes yet, I gotta say. Whoa. 28:00 Yeah, it's a good one. I like it. Great hot take. My hot take I'm letting you know is more of a illuminating take. We're just shining a light. An illuminating take? 28:11 Yeah, we're shining the light of the sun, you know- [laughs]... from, from dating- Are we allowing it? Who, uh, judges, can we get a- [laughs] Can I get a, can I get a, a, a vote on that? Let him, let him cook. 28:22 Yeah, let me cook. Let me cook. Let him cook. You heard it here. Kiara is letting him cook. Yeah. I'm just giving the disclaimer that you might listen and be like, "Oh, whatever." 28:30 But, um, I've seen some interesting moves come from dating apps recently. Oh. So recently Whitney Wolfe- How? Have you been on the apps? No, the news. [laughs] Um, 28:45 so recently Whitney Wolfe Herd at Bumble, uh, talked about how she sees a future where people's AI versions of themselves will actually date each other on the app. Yeah. 28:59 And then I recently saw that Hinge is doing something where they won't allow you to match with other people, uh, if you haven't been responsive in your existing chats, 29:15 and I thought that was interesting because it felt like it was basically fighting ghosting. And so- Respect... 29:23 it got me thinking, you know, traditionally you've actually seen a lot of innovation come from two industries: one, the adult industry; and two, the music industry. 29:35 They're, like, very early adopters of, like, tech and... 29:38 But part of me wonders if the dating, quote-unquote, industry is really actually going to push forward, uh, some of these innovations a lot more, and not just technology but societal change. 29:52 You know, I, I'm actually almost more intrigued by the, the ghosting innovation than I am- Yeah... the, like, AI talking to each other. I'm like, "Oh, that's, that's interesting." 30:02 They see a problem, and they're, they're kind of setting the standard and they're saying, "This is not how you date." Yeah. Um- I don't see the hot take of it all, though. Uh, it's- That's what I'm missing... 30:13 it's, it's more so to say, and I, I gave the disclaimer that this was more of a shining the light, that I think we're actually probably going to see more interesting moves- Like, I wouldn't be surprised if Tinder is gonna come out with stuff. 30:26 We'll see more from there that we go like, "Oh, wow," like that is intriguing. Oh, I don't know if I like it. 30:32 We let them cook, but stuff, give me a little- Yeah, but I kinda told you I was gonna microwave a Hot Pocket, not like make, you know, a steak dinner. [laughs] That is- I gave the disclaimer. Hold on. 30:44 [laughs] That is amazing. [laughs] I told you that I was gonna microwave a Hot Pocket, not make you a steak dinner. Goddamn, that made it worth it. That made it worth it. [laughs] Uh, great combo today. 31:02 Uh, thanks for joining us. We'll catch you next week at the Future Forecast. Find us wherever you get podcasts. Peace. The Future Forecast is produced by Wheelhouse DNA for Acast. 31:13 Our executive producers are me, Boye Kolade, along with Fanny Baudry, Cassie Berman, and Leah Sutherland. Our audio producer is Kiara Noni. Our audio engineer is Matthew Blocka. Our editor is Nick Kursiemy. 31:28 The podcast is hosted by yours truly, Boye Kolade, and Chris Sawtelle. Thanks for listening, and see you next time. [outro music] Hey, we're Nick and Jack, hosts of The Best One Yet. 31:41 Behind every episode, there's research, emails, spreadsheets, and our shared Google Doc, the Headline Hammer. 31:46 With Google Workspace with Gemini, Google's AI is built right into the premium versions of tools we already use, like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. No new tools or extra logins, just personalized AI for the way we work. 31:57 That means less time on the work around the work, and more time finding the stories worth talking about. Get AI tools for work. Upgrade to Google Workspace with Gemini at goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. 32:09 That's goo.gle/workspacewithgemini. [outro music] This show is brought to you by The Future Party and Crosstalk Studios, produced by Chris Sawtelle, Boye Kolade, and Paul York. 32:21 Special shout-out to our production team, Araceli Rubalcava, Max Goolen, Shannon Klein, and Eli Tafur
