Ep. 71: Midjourney's Wildest Move Yet: Full Body Medical Scans.

0:00:00Knicks, World Cup, and viral tourism

Play from 0:00:01 8:88:88 0:00:01 What's up, everybody? Fast Hours Podcast, episode 71. Rory Flynn, Drew Brucker. Back in the building. And Rory took a nice little vacation, man. You got out of the the New York weather, but you kind of went at a weird time because New York Knicks are just balling out of control. Can't imagine you trying to stay up for those games. what? so upset. It was like I missed the two best g well the the two best games, of course, were while I was away and at the start time.

Play from 0:00:35 8:88:88 0:00:35 Start time was two AM. So it was like I didn't I missed the f I missed the full comeback game, which was not fun to miss that. But the the championship when they actually won, I woke up 'cause we had a flight early that morning. I woke up at like five fifteen. And caught the caught like the last minute and a half of the game. And so I got to see like the end of it on my phone. But like I missed the New York City I miss New York City burning.

Play from 0:01:01 8:88:88 0:01:01 I missed all the the chaos, which it's the best part of being here sometimes is for stuff like that. It's as crazy as that sounds. Yeah. with the city, you know. You had the people here for the World Cup too. So you had like people that were probably in New York for the first time and then they're like, What is what is happening here? It's like, Yes. Everyone thinks of New York as probably a like the Yankees maybe as maybe like a baseball town, as being like that's championship sort of like chaos.

Play from 0:01:30 8:88:88 0:01:30 But everyone knows deep down if you've lived here for long enough, basketball is like the like I'm a Giants fan. I'm the biggest sport of fan I am. Everyone knows basketball like runs this city. Like every every school has a hoop, every, you know, corner park has a has a you know, has a court. So it's like everyone grows up playing and all you need is a ball and there's always somewhere to play. Right. So it's probably like s yeah.

Play from 0:01:57 8:88:88 0:01:57 Probably like football or you know, football for our friends overseas, soccer for our, you know, US listeners, you know, all you really need is a ball, you can make something happen. Right. So that's you know, it was awesome. and if you don't you know, no championship in fifty years. Only, you know, there's so much pressure built up that's just ready to to explode once you actually do win something like that. So it felt it it had to feel even better, you know, um, for that to be the case.

Play from 0:02:27 8:88:88 0:02:27 It was the right team to do it. It wasn't a team of superstars. It was a bunch of like people that, you know, that everyone had sort of written off. A bunch of grinders, you know, just like bit of a anomaly in the sense of what you would typically expect from a a championship roster. There's no real superstar. I mean, Brunson, I mean, you can make a case. But he's but he been but he's not the most athletic guy, he's not the tallest guy, right? Like he's just a good player.

Play from 0:02:54 8:88:88 0:02:54 Um, but you're you know, there's no big three, you know, like there's no real big superstar power there and they just they've they've got something there. I mean they did it at Villanova and you know, were able to sort of replicate some of the chemistry with some of the new additions and then Cat came over like a what, a couple of years ago. But It just totally changed his game. But that was my dad went to Villanova, so it was been Villanova fans for a long time.

Play from 0:03:21 8:88:88 0:03:21 And it was and it was it was like as soon as Brunson came here, I was like, Yeah, I like this because that's the New York doesn't New as weird as it sounds, New York doesn't love a superstar. New York loves a dude like that who's been like counted out but just gives a hundred percent effort all the time, doesn't say much, just it's just like tough, mean, but like plays the right way. That's how That's what everybody loves. And that that was the whole team. It was ev that was everyone.

Play from 0:03:47 8:88:88 0:03:47 So it was just, you know, i you could tell like the whole city like embraced it, which is which was like, all right, this is cool. Like everyone loves the players, everyone loves the team. And that's how you see, you know, s I think it was like six million people showed up at the parade yesterday. They had to shut millions of people out because they couldn't fit all. If anyone hasn't seen, go look up the videos from what happened in New York yesterday. Like I've never seen that many people in New York.

Play from 0:04:12 8:88:88 0:04:12 saw this guy that like what did he do? Pass out? He OD'd or something like that. And he got brought back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sandlot move. Some girl came in and saved him. I don't know if she was like medically trained. It looked like she was medically trained, um, probably off duty. Went up. Dude wakes up, immediately tries smooching her, got curved twice. It was unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Play from 0:04:38 8:88:88 0:04:38 It's almost I mean, that's what I'm saying. Like it's just so crazy to watch some of this stuff unfold. Like it I have there's also like the other thing outside of that being on social media, the other thing I've been obsessed with, which I wanted to bring up was was the the foreign the foreign contingent that's here for the World Cup experiencing the US for the first time. But not like the cities. Not like the cities, like experiencing like Alabama, Louisiana. Like Houston, Texas.

Play from 0:05:04 8:88:88 0:05:04 It's to me it's incredible. Like just watch these people like you know, they're a golden corral and they're having like, you know, an orgasmic experience. 'Cause the golden it's like we take Bucky's Yeah. Bucky's Texas, Texas barbecue, stuff like, you know. Freddy. Freddie's been killing it. This uh it was funny because like I think like toward the beginning when he first came.

Play from 0:05:30 8:88:88 0:05:30 So he I think, I think he was well, he came into Atlanta. I don't know if that was his first stop. But we've got like this town that's toward Blue Ridge. You and I were talking about Blue Ridge, so it's north of the city called Helen, Georgia, and it's basically like just this German town in the middle of nowhere. Every Building is German. They do a big Oktoberfest thing, right? Like everything's German there.

Play from 0:05:57 8:88:88 0:05:57 it's like an hour from where I'm at. And I saw somebody recommend it. And then the next thing you know, he's there. You know, and then then he's hopping around. Like he just went to all these spots, right? Like he, I mean, he went to several states. He went to Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Houston. So Texas, um, I think Oklahoma. I mean, just like wild, bro. Like, I'm like how First of all, how do you get this much time off?

Play from 0:06:22 8:88:88 0:06:22 Second, like it's just amazing that People forget that America has culture too, right? And um, these other countries probably hear a lot of bad things about the US. But they come over here and they they there's just a lot of things that are just so novel to them. And then like, dude, this dude's just like taking off, and then JJ Watts putting him up in a hotel.

Play from 0:06:48 8:88:88 0:06:48 Ella Langley's taking him to a concert, giving him boots and clothes. I'm just like, yo, this is wild. This is wild. It's it's because like you you're put you're planning a trip to the US. You're not saying I'm going to Alabama, right? Like if you've never been to the US before, no offense to anyone who's listening in Alabama. Like it's just not it's the same way it would be if I'm going to Italy. Like I'm not, you know, the people are gonna go to Rome first before they go to Bologna or or like one of the smaller towns, right?

Play from 0:07:16 8:88:88 0:07:16 Like it's the way that people travel, right? And it's it's great to see them like eating the supersized food. Being down with like and anyone who hasn't been to the US, the southern part of the US is an entire experience. It is outstanding. Drew lives there. I went to school there. I miss it all the time. The people are real, they're funny, they're hospitable, and the the settings, locations are great, and I love them. Like I love seeing the discourse, like you know, I saw a lot of this pre pre the tournament where it was like everyone's like, there are the US infrastructure for soccer stadiums, like it's not good.

Play from 0:07:48 8:88:88 0:07:48 But I'm like, What? Like we we have like a coliseum in every city. doing with all these stadiums? Like you guys have too many stadiums. What are you all doing? stadiums are like Texas high school football stadiums are probably better than some professional stadiums. You know, our col love seeing people at the college stadiums and like, how is it this big? It's like, Yeah, that's college football. a school, there's schools here. There's there's one that's twenty minutes from me that just built a new high school football stadium that costs fifty million dollars.

Play from 0:08:18 8:88:88 0:08:18 Fifty million. Yeah. I mean, it's insane. And the other it's just been it's just been I like I don't wanna say wholesome, but also anyone out there if you're creating content and you wanna just absolutely go viral, just glaze the US. We're we're so in need of of some love from someone. So you just glaze us, tell us how good we are and you'll go viral. It's a it's it's the easiest trick in the book. it yeah, I was just gonna say, like I my takeaway was if you want to go viral, be the first person to experience something, right?

Play from 0:08:49 8:88:88 0:08:49 So like he's experiencing the US for the first time and documenting your experience. There's a bunch of people on YouTube that do this where they'll listen to an album that they've never heard before. Like I've I used to watch, you know, these guys that would listen to like Nas Ilmatics, you know, front to back for the first time. And you know, I'm just like this is fascinating. Like I want to see the reaction to this, you know. And I there like that is a great strategy. You know, maybe maybe what we do is we do something for the first time and we just film it, you know.

Play from 0:09:17 8:88:88 0:09:17 It's don't know. It's just cool. I follow all these Lord of the Rings accounts and there's always people that they always post the ones of people watching for the first time. Like I don't know what to expect and then like you know halfway through they're like bawling or like you know fired up like the best thing I've ever watched, you know, like eight million views. It's like, yeah, 'cause it's just people just want to be loved. Yeah. Yeah. you know, outside of themselves, like that experience.

Play from 0:09:43 8:88:88 0:09:43 Um Yeah. That's it. I I saw that with Game of Thrones too. People still doing that, like people are doing that for Game of Thrones for a while. Like, I haven't started I've never seen Game of Thrones. I'm starting it tonight. You know, what should I, you know? And then they'll document and they're like, holy shit, the red wedding? What? Yeah. It's dude, there's there's so much good wholesome content right now. Everyone just g and appreciate it while while we have it.

Play from 0:10:10 8:88:88 0:10:10 Before it goes before the algorithms send us back to doom and gloom every day. So, you know, man, that's that's my PSA for today. And then, dude, I mean, World Cup's going on. I'm sure everybody pretty enthralled that. US has a game today, second game. So that's exciting. We'll we'll be there. This is this is fun. This is fun to have it here. It's fun to have it like have everyone, you know, hosted here.

0:10:14Sports, culture, and AI gatherings

Play from 0:10:35 8:88:88 0:10:35 You know, we're w we're used to hosting in New York for, you know, everyone from everywhere in the world, but it's nice to see like people coming here for a sporting event like this. It's like that's exactly how we could do the Olympics if we if we wanted to also. But You know, there's like there's really not many things that can bring the world together culturally, quite like something like this. I mean, it's sports related, but it got me thinking it's like what else could be done outside of sports where people from other countries would come in, you know, and have sort of like this immersive cultural experience and bring people together, right?

Play from 0:11:11 8:88:88 0:11:11 Like the only time the only thing I could think of off the top of my head was just sports. It was like World Cup, it was like Olympics. AI. Actually, weird weirdly enough, like w we see it with the film festivals and stuff and the conferences. People come from all over the place, right? And they probably a big there's just like a big community around it. So, you know, I think that's like a like I saw people from that went to AI on the lot last week or two weeks ago, whenever that was, to conference.

Play from 0:11:38 8:88:88 0:11:38 I I think it's out in I can't remember if it's San Francis. But like it's a really good one I think. If anyone hasn't looked it up, it's like one of those it's like one of those basically like, yeah, it's a conference, but it feels like more of just like a gathering for for vibes. And it's like everyone I knew in the industry was there. And I was like, maybe I should have gone to this because this looks fun. I mean, people flying from all over the place. You know, to get some from Europe to California is not an easy trip.

Play from 0:12:04 8:88:88 0:12:04 That's a good thirteen, fourteen hour flight, right? Like that's a that's a big one. But there was a lot of people there. And I was kind of like getting FOMO. I should I should probably go to that. One of those things. Yeah. But it's well, you know, that we guys we had to segue and throw AI in there somewhere. Sorry for our discourse for about ten minutes on, you know, glazing the US and also, you know. Mm hmm. to one of the podcasts the other day and I was like, I'm honored.

Play from 0:12:32 8:88:88 0:12:32 I'm honored, honey. I'm honored. Cause you don't you don't understand this and appreciate you. she was on a long car ride. She's like, I love when you I love when you guys banter. You guys should do more bantering. I was like, Yeah, okay. But you know, also people are here for AI. They don't want to hear us just banter the whole time. But do we get comments on the banter though. People like it, I think. I think. If you guys hate it, drop it in the comments too. That also helps the algorithm.

Play from 0:12:58 8:88:88 0:12:58 Yes. Every time. it's the organic way in. Also, we probably should talk about Midjourney, baby. Whew. Okay. So in case you're like living under a rock and you just showed up to watch this podcast from under your rock without talking to anybody or logging on to X, Midjourney finally dropped one of their secrets.

0:13:06Midjourney reveals secret hardware

Play from 0:13:25 8:88:88 0:13:25 Hardware projects that Roy, I think we've been hearing about since 24. we're we're like, okay, I can't wait to hear about it. But then they would tease it for a while and then it would kind of go away. And it's like, okay, we can't say it yet. Okay. And then, you know, you just kind of like, okay, maybe we're maybe we're not gonna see it anytime soon here. But um maybe what we could do is do you wanna play these videos in case anybody has not seen them? Number one, I think like Midjourney's got this one up here, that that uh orange one.

Play from 0:13:55 8:88:88 0:13:55 And then I've got one on my profile that is David walking through the technical one. And it's so so he's like narrating it. It's not just the video of that one ab of the one above. So I think that would be cool too. Because um, before you play these, you you watched it live, right? You were texting me before you're like, Are you gonna okay? I just thought in general, this was such a cool and needed experience.

Play from 0:14:24 8:88:88 0:14:24 with the team, but but David specifically. You know, David does the office hours. Now, now, yeah, now it's every other week, right? Because he's got like product team or whatever on the other the other week, but never shows his face to your point, right? And um you know, there are a lot of times where you're just like, this guy's smart, you know, and and I've always thought that and got that impression.

Play from 0:14:50 8:88:88 0:14:50 But I think like seeing him in this element really gave me an even higher affinity for what he's doing and being in his shoes a bit more, you know, because I didn't know how big this launch was gonna be. I didn't know if it we didn't know what the reveal was gonna be. So we didn't know the true net effect of what was gonna be announced. But, you know, there was an office hours on Wednesday, and he got on, you know, and It was the office hours was 10 minutes long.

Play from 0:15:22 8:88:88 0:15:22 You know, he got on, he was like, hey, you know, we're doing this, blah, blah, blah. You know, I'm probably not gonna stay long, this, this, and this. He's like, okay, I gotta go. And like I got off and I was like, well, damn, like we didn't really even get an office hours. But then when I saw this, I was like, no, well, no shit, we didn't get an office hours. Cause he's busy doing all this other shit. And like it was truly a really good experience. Um, I think for everybody that caught this.

Play from 0:15:47 8:88:88 0:15:47 And because David narrated the whole thing. He talked about his background. He started from when he was a kid. He went to, you know, went through his career path, talked about leap motion. There were a lot of details in there. I didn't I didn't even know. And then the best part before he got to the reveal for me, Rory, was he was talking about his experience with diffusion models and his awe and excitement.

0:15:49David Holz explains the bigger mission

Play from 0:16:18 8:88:88 0:16:18 About when he would see the noise percolate, you know, and grow and get bigger and clearer and ultimately form an image. And I think that the way that he went through that and described that specifically was such a resonant moment for me, and I think a lot of people, because it was like that feeling that we got when we created those first images, you didn't You rarely got exactly what you wanted, but the surprises and the novelty of what you were getting was so crazy to see and experience.

Play from 0:16:59 8:88:88 0:16:59 And it at least for me, left this like there's there's definitely a feeling I I got when I had that. And I've had moments with what I've had that similar feeling. But I just thought the way that he described that was so interesting to me because I feel like that's how we got hooked. It felt like a drug because it's just like Oh shit, this is possible and this is so relevant and so fun and so low risk and low stake and like we could do whatever the heck we want and like how does this work?

Play from 0:17:26 8:88:88 0:17:26 And like I I don't know. The way that he went through that was just amazing to me. And then gets into um the hardware stuff, which um I thought was just way beyond what I or anybody could have expected or thought of, you know. for for lack of a better description. I I mean I just I knew it was gonna be something that was unexpected.

Play from 0:17:52 8:88:88 0:17:52 I n I I even thought it was probably gonna be something we had never thought of, but I didn't know that it was gonna be like that, you know. Yeah, I would the same way. I mean I was I was texting also friend of the show, Mindo, on the uh on the side and I was like when he started, I'm like, why does this sound like an investor presentation? You know, like I was like he's going through the story, it's I'm like, this must be pretty big or something, you know, 'cause that this doesn't sound like uh has anything to do with Midjourney.

Play from 0:18:17 8:88:88 0:18:17 Yeah. And I was like feels like he's getting like kind of uh no not like emotional, but like he gave us like real shit about this. And then when they dropped it, I was like, What? You know, it's kind of like I saw the the intro video going and I'm like, is this like, you know, some uh I don't know where my head was going, but I I wasn't going to full body image scan. So if anyone doesn't know what we're talking about, by the way, it's a it's a full body image scanner that takes sixty seconds and it's essentially going to function as a new option, new alternative to an MRI, which the tech is actually really goddamn cool.

0:18:27The 60-second full-body medical scanner

Play from 0:18:56 8:88:88 0:18:56 The way that they've engineered it, and a lot of it has to do with sound waves and 3D mapping and things of that nature, which I was like, that's awesome. Um, you know, I'm so happy that we're pushing technology there. This is what we all wanted when AI came around. And it was like, oh, this is like there's like the the the apocalyptic side, and then there's like this is the cool tech side that's gonna actually like help us as like a species, right? And like this is one of those things, and regardless of if it's good or not, it's a prototype and it's pushing.

Play from 0:19:24 8:88:88 0:19:24 an industry that hasn't really changed, I don't think that much in a long time. So I I like that. But you know, it was my fur my first thought was they built this off the back of image creation. You know, like this is all funded by us pressing enter a bunch of times, right? And typing into prompts, pushing enter. It was the first time I've felt like that in a long time where I was like, oh, like contributed something here.

Play from 0:19:50 8:88:88 0:19:50 You know, like I contributed my money to something that actually looks like it might help people, like from a from a product standpoint. Like I don't feel like I've ever really contributed anything f to like a company that felt like it was doing good. Do you know what I mean? Like maybe there's some that you feel like it's like, I d you know, I bought stuff from Patagonia because Patagonia, you know, donates to go, you know, restore the uh environments and things like that. And they do like a lot of, you know, philanthropic things.

Play from 0:20:15 8:88:88 0:20:15 Whatever. Yeah. companies for sure. But yeah, I get w I totally get what you're saying. Like that was like, we were part of the plan. Like we were part of the plan to raise the money to do this. Like and then it felt then it made me feel a little bit different, that there's a much longer term vision and that like yeah, all this stuff that's happening right now is really like the the image model feels like it's just like the vector to whatever else. And I was like Can I be mad at not having an edit model because of this?

0:20:18How bootstrapping made this possible

Play from 0:20:43 8:88:88 0:20:43 N no, because it feels like this is cooler and better for humanity. Did I think I'd see a Midjourney spa before I saw a Midjourney image editor? No. That's that was the other thing. Yeah. Yeah, the spa the like the the the spa thing initially was like Yeah, what? it. I get it though. Like, you know, to give people accessibility to something like this without going into a hospital.

Play from 0:21:09 8:88:88 0:21:09 Um, and maybe we should show the maybe we should show the video first. Um but Rory, to your point, like the one thing I got this uh somebody retweeted this post from David from 24 December. Let me read it to you because we're talking about VC. He goes, by VC standards, we should either conquer the world or die in a fire. And neither of those are spiritually compelling for me. I never wanted a company. I just wanted a home.

Play from 0:21:35 8:88:88 0:21:35 At this point, we have a large and loyal paid community. We build tons of features for them. I think we did more than 30 releases this year, and they're pretty happy. We have enough revenue to fund those crazy RD, um, tons of crazy RD, and our models are still the best by the metrics we care about, which is how the images look and how fun it is to make things. We've made a huge backlog of exciting things to make our models way better with zero risk. We did all this without investors, and honestly, it feels like we are successful.

Play from 0:22:02 8:88:88 0:22:02 The next metro success metric of success I think about most is now that we have all I ever wanted, quote unquote, in terms of a big well funded RD lab with cool people, free to work on whatever we want. Can we now build something that would make baby David proud? And can we tell bold stories about a human future that people want to be a part of? I think we can. So that was from December of twenty four. Um Which was really interesting because it just sheds further light on the VC story and kind of like getting into his shoes a bit.

Play from 0:22:32 8:88:88 0:22:32 I think he you know, whatever experience he had at leap motion and that VC thing was not good. Um, and that was a big factor in, you know, the way that he went about this roadmap with Midjourney and and what they were gonna do. So I just thought that was like a very cool tweet that resurfaced. And then I'll I'll give you one I'll give you one more um quick thing here.

Play from 0:22:57 8:88:88 0:22:57 Which was another tweet that somebody found from 24. Somebody says, I feel like we should all be getting scanned for cancer every other year. So I understand there's some false positive readings against this, but it's still confusing me. David said, false positives aren't an issue if you get scanned regularly, since you can tell if things are growing and are getting concerning or not. To be honest, I want to open up a biomedical imaging division at Middle and need to work on stuff like this. So, so it was out there.

Play from 0:23:22 8:88:88 0:23:22 It was out there and no one saw it. No, I didn't see medical coming. I maybe saw other things, but the s the spa, I didn't see that coming. I get the I get the pilot of what they're trying to do. And it feels more like body scanners and body composition scanners from like the wellness side of things, which is great. I think it's really smart. I think the I think some of the the innovation that they utilize in the tech is super smart, like the the doing it in water because of the way that the sound uh travels through water and it being like way more stable in that environment.

0:23:26Water, spas, and medical skepticism

Play from 0:23:56 8:88:88 0:23:56 It's like there's really impressive things about the way that it was built when they were going through it. I mean, you know, everyone if you if you've gone down the YouTube rabbit hole far enough, you get to, you know, the somatic stuff and the sound stuff. Now it's you know, and like the ancient the you know, the healing and all the other stuff that gets into it. So it's cool to see like, oh, you know, maybe we can solve some of this stuff if we keep going down the rabbit hole. But it took a unique individual who didn't need the cash.

Play from 0:24:24 8:88:88 0:24:24 Right? Like I think that's the one thing that I keep coming back to is like someone who didn't need the cash and wasn't building for the prestige of, you know, being a billionaire or being a business person that that's gonna you know, it it's like they just wanted to build something that's helpful. Like that's nice, you know. It's it's like it's good that there's there's one person out there. I hope there was wish there was more that, you know, but that's again that's that's what happens when you have the backing of like I'm fine, like I don't need any cash, I don't need to be famous, I don't need to be like, you know, the face of something.

Play from 0:24:56 8:88:88 0:24:56 I just want build shit that helps people. All right. There you go. Hopefully this works. 'Cause I did see some I did see some skepticism and pushback from some people in the r in the radiology community and things like that. And I was interested 'cause I want to see the other perspective. Like I know we're looking at this as like this is fucking awesome. But, you know, I'm I was looking at it to see like what is it what are like the other people saying? And a lot of it a lot of it just seemed like You know, these are the current issues, a lot of stuff's gonna happen with insurance, like this is how this is gonna work, and you know, there's a lot more problems with the imaging side of things than you think, and why MRI is better in certain instances.

Play from 0:25:33 8:88:88 0:25:33 I'm like, you guys, like everyone just thinks like this is it, like it can never progress. We're also working with technology that you can ask a question and it can go run one thousand parallel hypothesis on how to fix it. Right? It's like the presentation said, I think we're really lining up well with the trajectory of AI too, right? Like we're doing things when when things are just gonna keep getting better and we're hoping to to really merge at the right point in time with that.

Play from 0:25:58 8:88:88 0:25:58 You know, we're aligning to that. But I agree. I I did the same thing. I was like trying to be, you know, um, have a three sixty view on it. Um, I it it's tough to say because I'm not an expert on either side of this, right? But I would say that with any announcement like that, you're gonna have people that are doubters or detractors or don't think it's possible. That's always gonna happen. Couple that with an antiquated industry that hasn't changed much, has a lot of regulations.

Play from 0:26:27 8:88:88 0:26:27 You're gonna get more and more of that, right? Like you know, I I I my wife works in medical. It's just like one of those things where I think um that's another reason they of several that they wouldn't want to probably go the hospital route, right? You're gonna you're gonna get People are gonna be trying to squash you. Um, after you know, you're not gonna get fast tracked approval on these things, right? Like, so I just think like that spa route would that was also another thing. I was like, okay, well, that makes more sense, right?

Play from 0:26:53 8:88:88 0:26:53 Like this is just like a a different route um to do it. But I agree. I mean, I I I don't know what's possible. I I I did see like some of the things where I'm like, I just don't see how they wouldn't have at least got information from other folks or interviewed other folks to know some of these answers. Like I'm sure they did their due diligence. And maybe there are a few things they didn't think of, but if you're gonna spend that much money and that much time on something, I I would imagine you probably did your homework to a to a decent degree, especially if you got somebody with the pedigree that he's got in the space.

Play from 0:27:29 8:88:88 0:27:29 I mean, dude used to work for NASA. Dude worked for Leap Motion doing stuff that was probably several years ahead of its time. Like I You know, he's got very great connections in the space, you know, like I so, you know, you couple those things too. I I don't know what the final version of this looks like, but um I hope it works out because it sounds really, really cool. Really a s I just like the vision part of it, right? Like I I really like the the here's let me identify problem.

Play from 0:27:57 8:88:88 0:27:57 Let me find solution to problem. But it's also like it's not a new it's not like totally new, it's just a innovation on a tech that is just old and outdated and everyone hates. No one likes getting an RI. It's the worst thing ever. Like it you who wants to sit still for an hour in a in a claustrophobic tube while you get your body scanned and hopefully you didn't move or sneeze and then you have to do it again, right? You know, like It's i it's just like such like it it glazes over everything.

Play from 0:28:23 8:88:88 0:28:23 Like you don't think about it that often until you have to have one. I hate this. And then you forget about it because you're like, I probably won't have to have one for like ten years, right? And then there's he's just like thinking about that. And then it's also like, medical complications, what do we do? Well, we put it in a spa. You know, like it's just like there's you can see like the detailed sort of thought process in a lot of it, and I liked I I just appreciated that. And it was great also hiring pitch, that whole thing. Cause then at the they're I just so you know, we're hiring.

Play from 0:28:50 8:88:88 0:28:50 Yeah, if anyone's interested in this stuff, that'd be an easy call to action right there. So props to the Midjourney team too. Like I don't you know, there were no leaks about any of this stuff. I mean, I would just you know, and that you you know about this stuff for a long time. I mean, it's just that it'd be so hard to to keep something like that under wraps. I mean, so props to them as well. do you wanna do you wanna queue up that video? Do you think we can get the sound you I think you figured out how to get the sound on these, right?

0:28:56The scanner demo and nine-person team

Play from 0:29:17 8:88:88 0:29:17 Hold on, you might need to I don't know which video. I didn't see the one that you were talking about. If it's uh is it on David's page? there's uh there's two. There's the the just the main you can go to my p go to my page. Um I've reposted the original Midjourney one, like the the short two minute one, and then I've got uh another one that I just recorded on my phone where it's him narrating the technical video, which is better because he's cueing it up.

Play from 0:29:43 8:88:88 0:29:43 It's not just a bunch of things that you're seeing and wondering what's happening. Is it This one? That's the yeah, that's the technical one. Yep. That's what he wanna put up. Yeah, I think we I think we could just play that one. Yeah, let's just play that.

Play from 0:35:21 8:88:88 0:35:21 So I saw that and I'm like, I'm hearing all these picometer pentaflo. You know, I'm just like, holy bro. But um I I just, yeah, it was, it was so um interesting to see. And there were a couple couple things that also probably worth mentioning. You know, some people I saw like Midjourney, you know, probably people that aren't super familiar with Midjourney but reporting on like this is a crazy pivot.

Play from 0:35:49 8:88:88 0:35:49 You know, it's like, well, this isn't a pivot. They've been working on this for a while. This is like more of an expansion on what they're going to be doing and what they're capable of. This is not, they're not moving away from image generation in any way. So I just want, you know, people to know that. So they're still going to be working on image models. They're going to be working on the edit model. I think there's just a little bit more big picture stuff too that we need to be cognizant of in terms of those users specifically, right?

Play from 0:36:18 8:88:88 0:36:18 It's just like, Hey, we get it. Like there's a bigger vision here. But this is a core piece piece of that. He said there's only like nine or ten people working on this specifically, which is wild. So that means they've got I don't know. He was saying like eighty percent of people. I don't so I don't know. What is he they still had a hundred employees? Maybe they're less than I thought. But he was you know, so eighty percent would be like eighty people, eighty people working just on the image and other stuff, right?

Play from 0:36:47 8:88:88 0:36:47 Like edit models, like anything related to that. So there's only nine people working on this. It's just wild. I mean from the looks of it it looks like they're building like, you know, some It's it looks like there's a lot of stuff going on. It's cool as hell though. I mean, truly. Whatever, if it works or if it doesn't work. They did a they did a good job on this video. I think David said he p you know shot, produced, and edited this video himself too, which is like, you know, all right, good on you, dude.

Play from 0:37:18 8:88:88 0:37:18 Vibes. It's definitely got it. Yeah. It's uh it's just again, it's not something you expect to hear on a random Wednesday night at nine thirty, true Midjourney fashion, right? Like not some Monday morning you know, big events, just David sitting at a table with a laptop at six PM Pacific time, nine you know, just like we're gonna go and do this. It looked like there was people live in the audience, obviously, but like just gonna drop this whenever we feel like it.

Play from 0:37:45 8:88:88 0:37:45 We'll go on live. You know, there's no investor moment that has to be met. You don't have to ha hit a certain number of thresholds. Like he just lets the the community goes and does what they do. This went everywhere. You know, there was need more Midjourney events outside of San Francisco though, please. I mean, you we've got like give us something on the east coast, man. I I'll go to that for sure. Um Did this is just there was I saw there was a there was a couple funny funny ones I saw.

Play from 0:38:14 8:88:88 0:38:14 Someone did like the uh someone did the the f you know the f the fat JD Vance meme? Someone did like Yeah, it was so good. So funny. Let me let me see if let me see if I can find the journey. I while you're looking that up, I'll sh I'll let me give a quick shout out to our boy Alar. I thought this was just like super cool though. Like he took the the sort of like style of um what was going on in these videos and then just sort of like created a couple stills with it.

Play from 0:38:47 8:88:88 0:38:47 Sick. It's like a campaign. Campaign ready. Good to go. Unreal. like I I hope Midjourney sees that. Like that's just that's super cool. and that's what kind of community they have. You know, like let's not forget, you know, Midjourney has a great community and they can still do so, so much with that community. Um, you know, beyond just the office hours, you know, beyond just like this once.

Play from 0:39:18 8:88:88 0:39:18 in a few years sort of moment where we're doing like this live there's just so many opportunities for them. I really still feel like they need to capitalize on that. There's so much they can do on the community aspect of this. Alright, let me hold on, let me pull up let me pull up fat JD Vance here. There was a there was a few that I found really funny, just like randomly. I thought this one was hilarious. That was great. But this uh this one here with just I mean, just genius level social content.

Play from 0:39:48 8:88:88 0:39:48 You know, just like TBC. First time I ever saw them building the future of AI media. Um but it was like there you go, David. I love this. love this. I mean it was so good. Like just that shot alone. It's the the details are good. That's what make it good. Yeah, slop guys, it sometimes it can be good and fun. All right. You know? That's the point. Like this is this is tasteful slop.

Play from 0:40:15 8:88:88 0:40:15 It's a great uh would be a great series for us, you know, to to look at every once in a while. It's just too good. It's just too good. But I mean, this is like this is the kind of stuff that you don't see coming. And that like I don't see anyone else pushing towards. Like I think everyone else is pushing towards quarterly earnings. I mean, this is the good thing is we always talked about with them. It's just like find it feel like it this is the weird part of it.

0:40:30Midjourney’s bigger secret roadmap

Play from 0:40:43 8:88:88 0:40:43 Like I never feel like I knew the direction. Like I never feel like I had any grasp on the direction. Just like other than pure vibes and fun. Like, oh I mean, I guess if you can build a company just on that and just make millions, yeah. Yeah. I mean, besides just like saying something and it being sort of ambiguous and short on an office hour, is we don't really know the true definition of what that is. Yeah, you're right. Like this is this feels like one of those like first real previews of like, like I I kind of get what's going on here now.

Play from 0:41:12 8:88:88 0:41:12 I I see like you guys are ambitious, like really ambitious. You guys really mean the whole we're a research and data lab. Oh okay. So like this goes beyond just the little surveys we're filling out for a little while there, Rory, you know? Yeah. Yeah. my whole pr opinion on them, I think. Like not not that it was negative, just that like I didn't I was just like trying to think in my head where does this go next? And like this was not the idea.

Play from 0:41:38 8:88:88 0:41:38 So be if this pans out, this could be this could be a trillion dollar company. I mean, this this is crazy. they can't be save they can't drop the first two and that's like the the biggest ones. Or maybe that it is. Yeah. let's mention that too. So they there you saw this briefly in that video that we shared. But this is like their little secret, subtle symbolism for these projects that are coming out, both on the hardware and software side.

Play from 0:42:08 8:88:88 0:42:08 And so if we've got any master decoders in here, would love to hear your thoughts on what any of these may be. Um, but these feel like they're very six sense oriented. Everything's orchestrated toward like a feel or a a verbal or you know, like it's associated with the senses. I don't know what th this one's the most I guess the eye for vision makes sense.

Play from 0:42:34 8:88:88 0:42:34 Like the imaging model, the eye makes sense for the for the but full like full body vision, heart. I mean maybe that's maybe that's for us. I don't know why that would be a spa, but it's you know, we we can speculate, but I don't know. I don't know if I'll come in close on any of these. The brain brain one's interesting. Yeah. ask your mailman. He might know, actually. Now that he's a subscriber, he might know. Your local EMT, just don't try to kiss them. You know, some if they if they bring you back to life.

Play from 0:43:05 8:88:88 0:43:05 If you know anyone, tell thing I was just gonna mention. I found this girl. She posted the whole thing on her account. So if anybody wants to go back and watch it, which I d I wasn't sure if this was gonna be available, it is available. Um I guess Midjourney well, no, Midjourney posted it too. I guess is this just a repost? Yeah, okay. Never mind. Midjourney's got two. But if you want to get inspired and kind of put yourself in the shoes of Of what what happened here, especially if you're on on the Europe side and you were six hours ahead, you definitely didn't stay up for this.

Play from 0:43:36 8:88:88 0:43:36 it's there. So I was I was again I was texting friend of the show, Mindo, and uh I was like they got I was so tired from that day. I'd done like a round trip out to Long Island, it was like I you know, it's I wanna go to bed kind of thing. At nine o'clock, yes, I'm a I'm a tired father, everyone. And I was like he got t he's got ten minutes to like sh to like tell me something and then the the intro sort of like kept going and I was like this guy's really like he's going into like his History, like don't know if I should be like excited about this or just like go to bed now.

Play from 0:44:09 8:88:88 0:44:09 And then when they start playing the video, I'm like, I have no clue what this is. Before I know it, I'm forty minutes in and I like, Well, I guess I was captivated. You know, like I guess I was like laying on the couch in the dark. I got it set up on the couch and I'm like laying next to it, watching it sideways. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um and then he got in his own, you know, and then it was just like, yeah, this dude's a f you know, back on his genius shit here. You know, he's just he's such an interesting character, man. He's a he's a one of one.

Play from 0:44:38 8:88:88 0:44:38 Yeah, man. That was just it was very cool. I mean, dude, we've had some crazy experiences here lately. You've got the World Cup stuff going on. You had the UFC 250 event at the White House, which we didn't even talk about, which was crazy. That was crazy, bro. I mean, I'm I I don't watch as much UFC now as I did like during the COVID period and before. Like I was watching every week.

Play from 0:45:05 8:88:88 0:45:05 Yeah. But you knew I was gonna be watching that one. And I mean, that was the same thing. I was tired. It was like one in the morning. Gachy and Taporia are getting ready to fight, main event. I'm like, okay, well, I gotta stay up now. Like, hopefully, this is entertaining. Gachy's literally look in the Oval Office looking at the Declaration of Independence, and then walks out of the Oval Office and does this walk all the way from the Oval Office into the octagon down this strip.

Play from 0:45:36 8:88:88 0:45:36 Uh hallway where it shows literally it's like a tracking shot, him walking past all of the president headshot images from now to George Washington. Go walks out the front. There's the seal president of the United States where he's overlooking the event, then walks down. Like it was just, dude, it was nuts. And then wins like as a huge, huge underdog.

Play from 0:46:02 8:88:88 0:46:02 And it's like, yo, this is America. Like, this is. Wild. I mean, I just dude, that event was crazy. I mean, like, you know, you had all these like veterans um in EMTs and firefighters and police officers in attendance at the actual thing, which I thought was super cool. And then they had like, I guess, something that was like right across the street, which was packed. So you had that. I mean, we had the mid-journey thing.

Play from 0:46:29 8:88:88 0:46:29 Like, I just We had the fable we had the the Claude Fable situation where the US government gets involved. Yeah. I mean if there's there's one thing that we do really well, guys, it's entertainment. You know, like US could entertain I mean hate us, love us, whatever. We d we do do entertainment. That's the one thing that you we can we can definitely hang our hat on that one.

Play from 0:46:55 8:88:88 0:46:55 are we're never gonna see a UFC fight on the White House front lawn. Ever again. Ever. Like what? flying in the air in front of like the West Wing. I'm like, what is Yeah. like the Delta formation like that. They had like twelve uh jets. I'm like, I've never seen that many jets in that formation before. That was nuts. that's that's probably where a lot of our our tax dollars went.

Play from 0:47:22 8:88:88 0:47:22 Was to that, you know, that flyover probably cost a couple of billion dollars. this is two hundred and fifty years of independence. Like we should be celebrating more of the two fifty thing year round, not just for like fourth of July, which is coming up. So it's just like it's cool to see something like in June. You're just like, okay, like, yeah, we should be doing more for the two fifty. It's it's cool. But I think the the there's just some you look you don't even know what to focus on anymore. There's so much stuff. But we say it's every episode, but like then even when real life happens outside of AI, you know, then it's like it is feels like there's more stuff that happens in a week now than it ever than it did like in a year.

Play from 0:47:56 8:88:88 0:47:56 Like back in when we were maybe in high school or col even college, like even my first year of work. I don't remember this much stuff happening. But Hurricane Sandy happened. That's what happened. I got s I got flooded in in Hoboken and that that's a whole nother story for another time. But I'm curious. Like a little bit of a random curveball question here, but before we get into like fable stuff too and and other topics, I'm just curious. Like you and I have both been doing a lot of like client work.

0:48:11How brand AI adoption has changed

Play from 0:48:23 8:88:88 0:48:23 We've been immersed in this, like we've seen things change a lot. Like the way I describe it too to people is like, you know, when we were in our early days, it felt like we had to educate a lot of potential clients on the opportunity that existed with this stuff, right? Like here, like massive ROI with time, money. Creative compromises, like now people like businesses mostly know that now.

Play from 0:48:49 8:88:88 0:48:49 But I'm curious, like from your perspective too, like being in the work and the things that you can share. Like, where where are you seeing these things shift now? And what's the current status now of maybe the things that brands want or clients want or where things are headed uh in general? I feel like that would just maybe be a good insight to get. For the audience. Funny.

Play from 0:49:14 8:88:88 0:49:14 Like I I I'm speaking at Figma Config next week, which is like for me I I'm Uhhuh. Like I'm nervous about it. Like it's the first one I've been nervous about since maybe the the s first or second time on stage. Yeah, but 'cause it's well, there's there's two things here. Number one, normally when I go on stage at like a marketing or a tech conference, I'm like I feel pretty good about how like visually explosive my presentation's gonna be like just from like a colors and exploit like craziness standpoint.

Play from 0:49:45 8:88:88 0:49:45 I always feel like that that holds me over even if people are like not as interested in the content. They're like, that's that's like I don't know what's coming on the next slide. Yeah. one thing you've always been great at, man. You do. You you you you're great at that. It's really a skill that you have. Yeah. But now I'm going to a a conference full of the best designers in the world. So I don't have that on my side. Like I know I'm gonna have like there's gonna like a lot crazier looking stuff. So I'm like hoping that, you know, my presentation on Figma or on Weave goes very well.

Play from 0:50:15 8:88:88 0:50:15 But the other thing is because I'm doing this, I looked back on my first presentation that I ever did the other day and I can't believe how much stuff in there was about justifying the use of this. Like I had like a lot of things of like why you should do it. Why the time is now what the results were. Like I guess that's how it got, you know, uh sort of like I don't say blew up, but that was why I got on stage in the first place was like the the data and the metrics side and like proving the business case for it.

Play from 0:50:40 8:88:88 0:50:40 And now I don't have any of that stuff in my in my presentations ever. I don't even think about it. Cause I'm like, now it's more so of like, how do you not destroy your company via like unlimited to token sporging? You know, it's like don't Don't go spend five hundred thousand dollars, you know, and give everyone unlimited access to Claude, because they'll just spend all of your money. Um, you know, I'd say but like I've seen the difference like significantly because people feel I think people feel like they have what's the best way to put this?

Play from 0:51:16 8:88:88 0:51:16 I feel like when we first started doing this, this is gonna take probably longer than it should to explain it, but this is exactly how I feel right now. Is when we started It was like Midjourney and ChatGPT, right? And it was like everyone who hated ChatGPT was a copywriter. Everyone who hated Midjourney was in like graphic design and whatever. And no one else thought AI was coming for them, right? And no one else thought and then like when you started seeing the video stuff, then you started to see the three D people like this stuff sucks.

Play from 0:51:42 8:88:88 0:51:42 Like this is awful. You know, the cinematographers, everyone, all the you know, the video production companies, everyone's like, This video sucks terrible. It's like, yeah, we know, right? Then it was like Then you started to see like the same sort of pattern happen with copywriters. They started getting good with with Claude or ChatGPT. The photographers started using Midjourney and they were like, this is actually awesome now that it works for me. And like I feel like there's a lot of industries that were still to get there, like 3D. And now that it's like incorporated into 3D and it's incorporated into, you know, a lot of the editing softwares and you have a plug-in for everything now.

Play from 0:52:14 8:88:88 0:52:14 I feel like everyone has like a little bit of stake in it. It's not just like, it's only the graphic design team that can use it. mm-hmm. got something. So it feels like people are a lot more interested now. They feel like they're part of the conversation and not just like we shouldn't be using this stuff all the time. Like that stuff's slop. It's shit. I can't control it. It's not the way it should be done. Like I see now like going in with three D and V FX teams who hated me for years. Now I'm like in there and like everyone's like this sh it's awesome.

Play from 0:52:42 8:88:88 0:52:42 So like it's so weird to see the thirty sixty on that side. But yeah, I think people figure out that you can solve small problems with it. It doesn't have to be your entire business. Um, you know, it's like yeah. talked about that a lot. It's it's not a all or nothing scenario. You can start with the whatever use case you want. How you know, it could be extremely ri low risk. It could just be for internal usage. You know, like there are several of those things that are out there.

Play from 0:53:10 8:88:88 0:53:10 and then I you know I would also I would also say too I feel like in some ways a lot of these companies are have mandates from above. Like we we need to figure out something with AI. You know, and and then you've got the decision makers with with budget that are out there trying to find exactly what it is that they need, right? Like some of them know specifically what they need, others have just a just a general idea, right?

Play from 0:53:36 8:88:88 0:53:36 But those ideas are much more solid and specific now than they were even six, nine months ago. Um, because I think like other they've seen other brands start to do it and You know, some some brands though, I will say this. There's so much work just because I'm basing this off of you and me, so but I but I know this is true. There are a lot of opportunities out there that you have no idea actually exist.

Play from 0:54:06 8:88:88 0:54:06 Right? Because you're either locked down on an NDA or you know, there are just certain things that you can't share, right? Like, so these things are happening. Like Beyond what we're just seeing in public spaces like X or LinkedIn or whatever. So just know like this thing has exploded. You know, I I base that a base off of the engagements that you've gotten in the last year or two, based on what I've gotten the last year or two, what I've seen online, and then also realizing in some cases, the extent of which can be shared.

Play from 0:54:42 8:88:88 0:54:42 Some of these companies don't want don't want anybody to know that they've got AI operating. in some part of the the process, right? Like whether that's the the architecture, infrastructure of it, workflow bit of it, or in the end result that that could be marketing materials for for whatever. Um so dude I presentation because I I they were like, you can show this work and this I'm like, I can't.

Play from 0:55:08 8:88:88 0:55:08 Uh I got to a point where I'm like, I don't have anything cool to show anymore because I can't show it, which I hate. You know, it's like I'm just like arranging it practically in a different format so that it's not exactly the same, but it's kind of the same theory and concept, and it's like this is how it works, but like you can't show via NDA the really fucking cool stuff that is, you know, that's you that You guys would you see it every day, you don't even know it exists.

Play from 0:55:34 8:88:88 0:55:34 Right? Like that's the that's the and no one'll tell you. And they'll never say it. But like, you know, for one one thing that I was happy about, like one of our one of my, you know, my clients and my my good partner relationships, Shark Ninja, which I love them. They're an awesome, awesome team. Everyone go buy their products. This is not a paid promotion. Um love love a good Shark Ninja, either, you know, cleaning product or or home appliance. But they went from four or five people using it when I talked to them last year at you know they're four thousand, five thousand person company, multinational, thirty-five global markets, like they're huge.

Play from 0:56:10 8:88:88 0:56:10 Um last Labor Day. So that was around August to like power users because they just got interested in it and they started to expand it and they started using it in every sort of division. And like not in practical ways. Like I was there in the headquarters a couple of months ago, the finance team you know, was using it in a in creative ways. Like this that's how weird it is. But they they have this big plaque on their wall.

Play from 0:56:36 8:88:88 0:56:36 And I can share this because it's public and it's on it's online. Their their CEO put it up. They're giving out a million dollars in cash prizes this year and like to the company. Ten thousand dollar weekly payouts, there's a monthly and then there's a there's a grand total. I think I think there's like a a hundred thousand dollar bonus at the end of the year for whoever's building cool shit that benefits the company. So it's like if you build some workflow that like helps people Not only do you get to benefit off that tool that you build, you get you could win ten thousand dollars this week and then you could also be, you know, you could win a hundred thousand dollars for the year as a bonus.

Play from 0:57:12 8:88:88 0:57:12 Like I like that type of incentive. That's like that means they're all in. That means they're like incentivizing people to think about it the right way. It's not about like what you can do. If this helps other people doing your work, like, you know, our work, our pro end product, then bang, we're all gonna it's not like Some of these other companies like Learn AI are like you're gonna get fired. It's like, no, no, no. Figure this out, you're gonna get paid more. Which I I love that. So good on them for that.

Play from 0:57:38 8:88:88 0:57:38 I just yeah, that's like a interesting area internally with the if you're in house, uh most of these companies still, um, I mean it's part speculation, part experience, uh, but they want you to be using AI, but they don't purposely have a lot baked in that feel like y they're upskilling you. You know, they like there's um Hey, we're gonna be using, you know, there's AI part of this project, or we maybe want you to come up with, you know, something, but it's not paid or it's, you know, it's just like it it just feels like, hey, go figure it out, but I don't know where you're gonna get the time to figure it out.

Play from 0:58:19 8:88:88 0:58:19 You know, and I think that's also the beauty of not being in house is you have more time to play with those things. Um, because when you're in house, dude, it's just meetings, meetings. What are my deliverables? So if you're not in a meeting, you're working on a deliverable. And if you're not working on a deliverable, you're in a meeting. You know what I mean? And if you're managing anybody, forget that, dude, because your schedule's already effed because you're reporting up and you're reporting down, which is why I got the hell out at the end.

Play from 0:58:45 8:88:88 0:58:45 I was just like, this is not what I love to be doing. So it's it's dude, it's a challenge. But we should probably um we should probably get into fable at least, right? Because like, dude, what? We didn't get mythos, then we get fable five. For what w what was it? Was it a week or was it two weeks? It was Okay.

0:58:57Claude Fable 5 appears, then vanishes

Play from 0:59:11 8:88:88 0:59:11 really? So it launched while you're on vacation and ended while you my God, dude. Come on. Come on. and it was immaculate. And I was like, this is great. And I got like so excited about like my life. I was like, My life is gonna be so different. Like I saw like I saw the vision in my head, like I was projecting like six months downstream, and I'm like, my god, it's a bill and then it's like taken away and like going back to Opus four point eight, which is still like revolutionary or four point seven too.

Play from 0:59:37 8:88:88 0:59:37 I'm like I feel like I just I went from being like a thirty year old back to like a five year old, you know, like with the intelligence level where I was like my god, why? Don't do this to us. Don't give it to and take it away. I would have rather ne never had it in the first place, you know? Better better to have loved and lost than never loved at all. Bullshit. I liked this one. God, I mean some people were speculating that we get it back soon, but I don't I I like there's something going yeah, there's something going on behind the scenes here.

Play from 1:00:09 8:88:88 1:00:09 And then also you're seeing a lot of this calling for you know a pause or slowdown on this stuff, which is also like an interesting point that you knew was gonna happen. And I don't know the ramifications of that, but if this you know, if you're in a race, like the AI race. Even if you know it's much riskier to keep going.

Play from 1:00:35 8:88:88 1:00:35 Those are the kind of conditions that compromise integrity. You know what I mean? Um and so I just I yeah, let's go. Let's go. I was like so dialed into the SpaceX IPO to see how that thing would go. And then it was like Fable dropped. And then it was like Fable gets taken offline. I'm like, this seems odd that we just got a trillionaire made. And then uh, you know, I'm sh I'm I'm sure no one in the US government has a stake in SpaceX.

1:00:41Inside the Fable 5 conspiracy corner

Play from 1:01:05 8:88:88 1:01:05 That would be that would totally be out of c out of the question, right? And then we go and drop the most revolutionary model of all time that can do My my five, six hour tasks in six minutes that i I already proved out that it could do. And then it's like, wait. I don't know how I'm not smart enough to understand how any of that works, the IPO stuff, and like who's at stake and who gets, you know, the whatever. I'm also dumb enough to really love my own conspiracy theories.

Play from 1:01:33 8:88:88 1:01:33 So, you know, that one felt a little bit of odd timing. It was like obviously Claude dropped that for a reason at that time and obviously it went offline. It's for seemingly not that big of a reason. Like not not that big of a a deal at at the end of the day. So I don't know. I don't know. you know, I I just I I love when when you dig into stuff.

Play from 1:01:58 8:88:88 1:01:58 Because like it's like it one at a certain point there becomes this threshold of too many coincidences are smoke, you know. And you know, there's just, you know, the probability of several things happening, you know, I just I'm just like, yeah, uh, you know, I could I could definitely see that happening. But like somebody also posted something about like fable the name, you know. I didn't see that one. Fable alone is like a short fictitious story designed to teach a moral lesson.

Play from 1:02:27 8:88:88 1:02:27 And it's like, yo, that was kinda weird that they called it fable, you know? Like I'm I don't know, bro, but you know what I mean? Like, it's crazy. would it's just like I you know, US government, if anything is for anyone who's not familiar with the with how the US government operates, if anything is deemed a national security risk, which is the most ambiguous thing of all time, which could be anything, it's just like they have the right to to either seize it or shut it down.

Play from 1:02:53 8:88:88 1:02:53 So it's like, you know it I I I could be a national security risk for X no reason. Yeah. Yeah. a twenty I I c what it's like a t twenty percent threshold or something. Like if this were to I can't remember the exact terminology, but it's like if this were to disrupt the space or the market by twenty plus percent or more, they have that tort that sort of right uh to seize it or shut it down or hold it or assess it or whatever whatever whatever it is.

Play from 1:03:23 8:88:88 1:03:23 Do what they do with patents all the time. It's like people come out with patents that are like, you know, that are like really good for X and they're just like national security risk. That's ours. Yeah. Energy. Yeah. Yes. It th there's i I just think it was it was a curious time for the drop 'cause it didn't feel like it felt like again like a very strategically placed release.

Play from 1:03:50 8:88:88 1:03:50 to where it didn't feel like it was in the the the normal sort of like anthropic lead up where like we knew that the Opus stuff was coming, it like we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. Then it was like fable, it like it was like we heard about Mith Mythos for months. And they were like this is the most dangerous piece of tech ever. You know? It's like okay. And then just out of nowhere just like drops and I'm like I start I'm like, ooh, and I'm telling my wife about it and I'm like, this is the coolest thing ever.

Play from 1:04:16 8:88:88 1:04:16 Like they this this thing did my, you know, job like in ten minutes and like it did the thing that I wanted it to do that normally takes an hour. She's like couldn't care less. but I'm sitting there like I can't believe this is like the reality that we're living in. And then just to see it like, you know, the we shut it down for everyone. And I'm like, you son of a bitch. Like what? Cause it was I was doing some s I was running some stuff with the Blender MCP and it was insane.

Play from 1:04:45 8:88:88 1:04:45 Like I would like get out of here. The difference between what four point eight was doing and what that was doing. Yeah. noticing as the big mechanism changes in terms of like either output quality or terms? Okay. Okay. were immaculate. It basically looked at some some of the things in my code base and said this this was this is stupid. And like I could trim this by like sixty percent and make it more efficient.

1:04:48Why Fable 5 felt revolutionary

Play from 1:05:14 8:88:88 1:05:14 So it was like that. Um the error rate, it was doing what would normally take me a number of iterations in one shot. And then the speed, things that were take thirty minutes were taking ten. And like the level of detail that was going into the stuff via the Blender C P and like there's certain things like w I I don't claim to be a three D designer or know anything about three D but I know like when I'm having Claude do things and it it renders things in the wrong axis and it you know positions things facing upwards when it needs to be facing forwards.

Play from 1:05:46 8:88:88 1:05:46 Like it does like little things like that or pieces are out of place from a CAD, you know, if I have using a CAD and rendering it in in Blender and like, you know, if there's like an internal mechanical piece it might render it partially outside of the the walls of the product. This thing was like done. And it was fast. 'Cause the blender MCP isn't not particularly fast with Opus, but it was it was like I I will go to you know, I'm gonna hit this go to the bathroom, like I know I'm gonna be waiting for this for a while.

Play from 1:06:13 8:88:88 1:06:13 Come back, it's done. I'm like, what? What do you mean it's done? And it wasn't as like you know, I didn't see like the this burned this used like ninety thousand tokens. It was like eight thousand tokens. I'm like, What? Is it so is It was just funny having it look at my entire operation and say, This is stupid There, I mean, I think I think we're gonna see pricing changes here soon, too.

Play from 1:06:38 8:88:88 1:06:38 Uh unfortunately, I think we're gonna there's a couple different things that could happen. Like they they I mean, they could they could definitely charge more for the max plan now that the tech is getting better and better. I mean, 200 bucks a month on paper sounds like a lot. It is a lot. But then when you're running your business off of it, it's not a lot. You would pay more, you know? Like I I don't know what I would pay, but I would probably pay I d I I don't know, I don't know.

Play from 1:07:09 8:88:88 1:07:09 I mean, I guess I would have to consider the alternatives uh what I could use instead. But just flat on the surface, I mean I would pay several hundred, if not a thousand. Um, just based on how embedded it is. But again, that would be I would still need to consider the trade off. Could I could I just use another model instead? Right. But I'm just saying hypothetically, that is what it would be worth. And then they could also go this route of like pay per usage.

Play from 1:07:37 8:88:88 1:07:37 Pay per usage. You know, like and so I I just don't think like, you know, you can do a lot on ChatGPT for just twenty dollars a month. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean like I love Codecs too and I use it when Claude's down and it still n operates the same way because not the same way, but close enough. I I just don't I don't see how every new release from now on isn't gonna be scrutinized in this way.

Play from 1:08:06 8:88:88 1:08:06 Because it's like all right, it's already like what are we gonna do? Just put the restrictor plate on? Like then we're starting to limit the capabilities of what we can do and then I don't know if it's good or bad, indifferent, whatever. It just feels like just seeing that actually play out, like I can't remember a time when it was so public that w the US government just shut down something. And they did it in a very backhanded way, which was like, okay, only you know, people inside the US can use it and no foreign nationals.

Play from 1:08:38 8:88:88 1:08:38 And then it's like, well, you know, they obviously know that probably half of anthropic is foreign nationals, so they can't they can't access their own models, which means they're just gonna have to shut it off for everyone. It wasn't like, we shut this down for everyone. We shut this down for specific group of people, which is yeah. Yeah. So very tactical in in a sense. If it feels a little bit And now you've got like governments in bed with open AI.

Play from 1:09:03 8:88:88 1:09:03 So I mean open AI's probably got a little bit longer leash there. Um in bed with, you know, SpaceX. Yeah, Elon's obviously d got government contracts and stuff like that, so it's SpaceX stock, bro. I was I got in on the 135. Um it was I didn't look today. It was up to 220 at one point. did it tr did everyone get their dump yet?

Play from 1:09:29 8:88:88 1:09:29 'Cause it feels like it happens with every IPO. They go up and then everyone gets their makes their bag and dumps it. Yeah. with these initial shares that people have to abide to. So I don't think people can really dump 'em yet either. So where is that at now? SpaceX right now, present time. It's back down to one hundred eighty one. You know. interesting that 'cause the SpaceX thing, like with with Grok and everything involved, like is there is there another?

Play from 1:09:58 8:88:88 1:09:58 I mean jet Google is Google's public. SpaceX is public. Claude Claude's not. Coda I mean ChatGPT's not. Microsoft is trying to think of like the play I'm probably forgetting a bunch that are in the space of like the major L L space from publicly funded, you know, publicly traded companies, but they're it's I I just f I feel weird about this this one overall.

Play from 1:10:25 8:88:88 1:10:25 Like I I don't like the fact that the government got involved and everyone's probably like American over here, thinking that, you know, being like all optimistic not not optimistic, like naive and things like that. I'm like, yeah, I just didn't think it would happen in that way. Like I I just didn't see it being so abrupt. Um because our government can't make a decision on anything. So that, you know, like that felt That felt strange. Like I hope that's not the precedent moving forward.

Play from 1:10:52 8:88:88 1:10:52 Right? Like that that can just happen. Um, but again. I mean, cause even like small things though, but like like if you've if you open any threads, chats with Fable Five, I wasn't able to change the model. I had to pick up that converse. Yeah, I could I had to pick up that conversation and go to a new thread. Like, dude, what? Give us the we can't just change in the middle of a thread.

Play from 1:11:18 8:88:88 1:11:18 Like, you know, so like everything I had going with Fable, right? It's like, this is a big pain in the ass, and I gotta I gotta move it over, I gotta start a new thread. the it it's it's a weird one. It's a weird one. Doesn't feel because that's where I was saying I was getting into the uh the Magnific MCP with with Fable and it was doing some cool stuff because if anyone hasn't used these, you know if anyone's a Magnific or a you know Higgs field or whatever.

Play from 1:11:43 8:88:88 1:11:43 Yeah that has the MCP it's really it's really just a sick interface because you can tap into all of all of Magnific via a you know, a Claude chat. So like having having, you know, running projects in Claude code and then it adding my skills to it. So I can have like it's basically just like I don't have to I don't have to do three steps of the process. I don't have to, you know, load up the skill, write my prompts, bring them somewhere else, hit enter, you know, then bring them back into Claude.

Play from 1:12:15 8:88:88 1:12:15 How does this look? It's just like, you know, here, use my Nano Banana skill. generate this image. Okay, cool. Now generate five variations of it. Alright, cool. Now take this image and generate five different angles of it. Awesome. Just like typing, bang, but you know, my skills are applying the rest of the prompting process to it. There's just firing back and forth between magnificent and it's nice to see images being generated with inside of Clot. And like, you know, I can test processes, I can do things a little bit quicker there.

Play from 1:12:41 8:88:88 1:12:41 Which the Fable thing, that was what I was getting really excited about 'cause it just like it just understood everything. And it was it had like full three sixty degree view. But now it's like four point eight it's okay, but it still misses it misses the mark on some of the stuff that I was trying to do. But I think it w I wonder when we get the next update from them. Is it a revised fable? Is it an entirely different model?

Play from 1:13:08 8:88:88 1:13:08 Yeah, yeah. We'll see. I don't know what it could be I mean the the the language around it was so vague that it's it's like you could probably just do it again. You know, if they release it as just like Yeah, you know what? It's let's give let's give this this SpaceX IPO a little bit more room to breathe. Like, yeah, you're off, you know, kind of thing. Shut it down. John Taffer over there.

Play from 1:13:34 8:88:88 1:13:34 Just uh Dude, yeah. That's a meme waiting to happen. Yeah. Hango. thumbnail. Um but I just I'm gonna stop before I before I get, you know, too political on this show. Um 'cause it we can go a million different directions. I just think that we're we're we're in a we are in a race, no matter what we wanna think about it. And we just wanna use the best stuff.

1:13:58The AI race and 12 possible futures

Play from 1:14:02 8:88:88 1:14:02 Yeah. you know, if if you're not American too, I mean clearly America and China are are trying to get to this place as quickly as possible. I don't I'm not gonna pretend to know it all, but it seems like China's Ahead in some ways and we're ahead in some ways. And but China's like really they've they've gone to a much deeper um integration place than we have.

Play from 1:14:32 8:88:88 1:14:32 Like they're doing this stuff in schools and you know, blah blah blah. I mean, what are we doing? What are we doing? Our kids aren't learning AI in schools. So if this is a you know, like I I don't know, it's just th because you've got that battle then. And then you've got something like this. How does that affect, you know, the velocity in which we pursue it and then also the integrity in which we're making our choices, right?

Play from 1:15:00 8:88:88 1:15:00 Because like you you obviously don't want to create something that's gonna have security risks or create problems or technology that is goes beyond human control, because then we're in a effed place. So it's like this is uncharted territory, man. I mean, I think we all knew this was like we were gonna get to some level of this at some point, we're gonna run into this wall. So I I just, yeah, I'm curious to see how this affects future models. Like you said, I think that's like Yeah, this is so this is sort of like the precedent.

Play from 1:15:29 8:88:88 1:15:29 Is this like now gonna happen where every time they want to release them out, it's gotta go through government? And there's a there's a with a stretched out period of time where they gotta evaluate it, right? Like It's not capitalism. That's that's a little bit of uh it's a little of like social capitalism, which I don't necessarily think is good in this current moment. But you know, people can disagree with me. I you know, whatever.

Play from 1:15:55 8:88:88 1:15:55 The the I watched a really interesting YouTube video last night. It was on this uh it just caught my attention. I never watched this stuff, but it was like the twelve possible futures of of like AI development. Yeah. And it was from it was from one of like the I forget who wrote it, but it was some like uh very uh well established, you know, uh credentialed person. One of the one of the ones that I thought was super interesting was like it it was a it was a future where it's basically like the nuclear arms race where it basically gets to a point where the only point is developing the AI to deter anyone else from developing the AI.

Play from 1:16:35 8:88:88 1:16:35 And that's it. And like it there's no new there's no new innovation, like it doesn't help us at all. It's just like the AI is there to make sure that other AI doesn't do anything bad. And like that's it. Like, no, we don't get any of the benefits of it. We don't get any of the medical stuff. It's just like all the resources go to making sure adversaries AI isn't gonna like the same thing that like, you know, like basically what nuclear nuclear, you know, doctrine is for everyone on earth. Which is you can have but you can't use them.

Play from 1:17:03 8:88:88 1:17:03 Yeah. There's some more, you know, there's like the there's like the one where Like the w we become basically like, yeah. And the worst. But like that one in the middle was kind of like I hate that I can see that future and I don't want that future, but it feels like that's very possible. Um it felt very like I never considered it like that before as a as a way for it just to be like stalemate and that's it. And nothing ever progresses beyond that state.

Play from 1:17:29 8:88:88 1:17:29 it just kinda stays like where we are now. And like That that's like again like one of those scenarios that people just aren't thinking about normally. You know, and then you're like, yeah, I could Yeah. It's just like again, we we weapons basically I I don't know how we got into weapons here, but it's like the new there was you know you g you get into the nuclear yeah. checks, you know, uh, to make sure that we're flagged essentially here. uh everyone built their their their bombs so that just in case someone else had the bomb and someone else you know, if if they have a bomb then we have to have a bomb, but we're not gonna use it, but we need to have it just in case.

Play from 1:18:06 8:88:88 1:18:06 You know, so it's like feels like the same sort of uh feels like the same sort of idea. But yeah, I mean, that's where we're going though. This is what these conversations are gonna be like 'cause who knows what these what these what this tech's gonna be. Just don't want it to be limited by arbitrary powers above that think that we're not worthy of them. we're dude, we're already six months we're already six months through twenty twenty six, halfway through, man.

1:18:22Four years of Midjourney and the outro

Play from 1:18:31 8:88:88 1:18:31 And it's you know, what is what is twenty twenty six? Some I mean, I looked at my first Midjourney receipt the other day, it was twenty two. I'm like, how the hell has it been four years almost? Yeah. very closely at, which it was like the number of users they had based on the month and the year. And those like twenty two, twenty-three. It was like super interesting because I was like, Where did I where did I jump in there? You know? Um, I know it was twenty two.

Play from 1:18:58 8:88:88 1:18:58 I just couldn't remember if it was like November. I think November was like when I first really started generating. Yeah. But I can't remember like if that was was that the first gen or like what? But it was just a it was a really interesting chart nonetheless because like, this is interesting. took off after V four. Once V four was viable because V three was still like nightmare fuel. Um you know, cool stuff but not tangible.

Play from 1:19:27 8:88:88 1:19:27 Nightmare fuel. We haven't done it in a while. Here it is. I'll share I'll share it real quick before we jump here. I just found it really quickly. So public launch open beta was sometime in between July and August, says a half a million people. So 500,000 people. Public launch.

Play from 1:19:52 8:88:88 1:19:52 Still a lot. Um, then you get up to about two million in August. October, you're up to about five, September, October, November. Yeah, there's the V4 release, like you said. This year about five, six million in. So I think we're probably. Somewhere around here, if I had to take a guess. right at that that landmark 'cause that was right when ChatGPT released too.

Play from 1:20:18 8:88:88 1:20:18 We got that right at the same time. it was like yeah, it was also like November, December, wasn't it? Yep. I because I'm pretty sure I was looking for other tools at that point when I was like, What is this AI stuff? Is there anything else? Is there something that can that can make images? And that was like a Google search. It was like Midjourney isn't. to like I I don't even remember the first like that specific thing that I saw where I heard about Midjourney. You know what I mean?

Play from 1:20:43 8:88:88 1:20:43 I I can't trace that that back. But I'm 'cause I did the same thing with runway. I was like, is there anything that can take my images and then make it move? And then runway gen two came up and I was like, Whoa. And you know, that was back when you could like you get if you could get like a like a like an eyebrow movement from something, like a or you took like one step, it was like Yeah.

Play from 1:21:12 8:88:88 1:21:12 Yeah. Now I'm complaining about, you know. the the the we can't say the word stump, but it This was that this was that first image I think he was showing that he was like, I created this and I was like, this was that relatable moment I was describing where he's like, it wasn't exactly what I asked for, but there were so many like interesting things inside it that it just got me really curious and excited. And I was like, Yeah, that's exactly I feel like that's exactly how we felt. That was a very nostalgic moment for us the other night, I think, probably.

Play from 1:21:41 8:88:88 1:21:41 But this is we'll see what those other we might have to go run that through Claude after we're off and see what Claude thinks those decode it. like we'll go through and scrape all of the the office notes and if we could even find transcriptions, feed it. You know, then it's got context clues. We could even go into David's tweets, export those into a CSV. prediction market, you know.

Play from 1:22:08 8:88:88 1:22:08 It's I wonder if it's listed on poly market, maybe not, but see if we can figure it out. But that was uh that was a good one. I think we got uh I think we got a lot of lotta of banter thrown in there. did, we did. I I'm gonna have to tell the wife about that. Maybe she'll listen to a second episode. But also, TSA agents, I know you had a good chance to to to drive up the subs specifically in that niche market.

Play from 1:22:38 8:88:88 1:22:38 And I'm I'm flying tomorrow. So I just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna do my TSA agents, because it what Drew is referring to, by the way, is if you're still here, you have to do something. Just do do one thing. Just either hit the hit the like button, hit the hype button, which I'd found out about recently. Is it only on mobile? Alright. Well, whatever.

Play from 1:23:04 8:88:88 1:23:04 Hype us up on there. Just drop a comment. You don't have to you don't have to subscribe. I'm not asking you to do that. Just do something. If you're still here, that means you're here for an hour and twenty three minutes. But And and keep leaving the comments too. Like we love the comments. We don't always get a chance to respond to all of them, but I'm always amazed at how many people take the time to to drop something, right? Like something they learned they didn't know about, how they feel about something, something we didn't talk about, suggestions for other things that we talk about, whatever it is.

Play from 1:23:32 8:88:88 1:23:32 And then the other prerequisite and requirement for being, you know, a listener here is it just gotta tell someone weird. You gotta tell someone else. Tell yeah, tell someone weird, you know? You gotta tell someone else. Whoever you know, I I don't know we've we've covered a lot of odd occupations now or people that might be in your life, but at this point maybe tell your what's the people that do your nails? Whatever they are. The people the the uh manny petty people.

Play from 1:24:01 8:88:88 1:24:01 Many petty people. There you go. Yes. your manny petty people. Tell your eyebrow threaders. you know, tell your local uh municipal worker or your your Department of Public Works. There you go. That's Yeah. You know, and if you're an American city where World Cup's happening, tell somebody from a different country.

Play from 1:24:26 8:88:88 1:24:26 Just drop it. this is a global podcast, people. I don't I don't I don't I st that still blows my mind that we get so many listeners. Dude, yes. We were number one in Ecuador for a second there. Unbelievable, man. But we we always appreciate you guys for for hanging around, hanging with us. Keep listening, we'll keep doing some weird stuff. Let's do it.

Play from 1:24:51 8:88:88 1:24:51 See you guys later.