Okay, hey there, and welcome to the deep dive.
Yay. We are jumping into a really fascinating
stack of sources you shared with us today, all
about the fast -moving world of AI. It's kind
of everywhere right now. It really is. Everything
from warnings about jobs, like really stark ones,
to some surprisingly personal stuff people are
doing with it. Exactly. So our mission here is
to unpack all this material you gave us. We want
to pull out the most important insights, maybe
some surprising facts, and just get beyond the
headlines. figure out what all this actually
means for you, our listener. Sounds good. Let's
dive in. So kicking off with what might be the
most striking finding from your sources, this
survey, it shows nearly half of Gen Z workers
are relying more on ChatGPT than their own boss
for work questions. Like, wow, right? Right.
It's a resume survey based on like over 8 ,600
full -time U .S. workers. Pretty big sample.
Yeah. And, yeah, the numbers are kind of wild
when you dig in. Kind of wild is definitely putting
it mildly. Uh -huh. Like 51 % of Gen Z sees ChatGPT
as, you know, a co -worker or an assistant, which
makes sense, I guess. Okay, yeah, that part cracks.
But it goes way beyond that, right? Yeah. 36
% see it as entertainment. 32 % as a companion.
and get this 21 as a therapist a therapist seriously
so they're not just asking like how do i format
the spreadsheet they're like really maybe talking
about personal stuff yeah exactly some even spend
like an hour or more um just chatting or playing
games with it during the work day an hour the
source calls it this all -in -one resource they
lean on for personal and even like emotional
support okay that's that's different unexpected
so why why prefer an ai over you know, a human
manager. What's the thinking there? Well, the
survey broke that down, too, for 49 % of Gen
Z and actually 47 % of millennials, too. So it's
not just Gen Z. Oh, OK. Interesting. Yeah, it's
simply faster. It's nonjudgmental. You know,
it's always available 24 -7. Right. And you don't
feel awkward asking what might seem like maybe
a basic or even a dumb question to a person.
Right. No fear of judgment from the AI. That
makes a lot of sense, actually. And the source
connects this to maybe weakening trust in managers
especially with remote work where people might
feel you know a bit disconnected is that part
of it precisely it says gen z is actually building
yeah and i use the phrase a real relationship
with ai whoa a real relationship okay that's
where it gets really interesting it's not just
a tool anymore it's becoming something else entirely
and uh the why it matters point from the source
is pretty significant here. It predicts that
in just two or three years, these kinds of tools,
like ChatGPT, they're going to be integrated
as official workplace mentors or assistants,
even formal mental health support options, especially
in hybrid or remote companies. Official mentors,
like assigned by the company. That's the prediction.
It's quietly changing who we turn to when we
need help or advice, a really fundamental shift.
Yeah. Wow. Okay. So from Potentially ditching
your boss for work questions to AI as your therapist.
That's huge. Okay, let's broaden out a bit. Moving
to some of the other significant points raised
in your sources, and not all of them are quite
so personal, I guess. No, definitely not. The
sources also highlighted some pretty serious
potential downsides. One stark warning came from
the Anthropic CEO, for instance. Oh, yeah? What
did he say? He suggested AI could wipe out 50
% of entry -level white -collar jobs in just
five years. 50 % in five years? That's a massive
number. It is. He even put a figure on potential
unemployment, suggesting it could push it way
up, like to 20%. 20 % unemployment, like the
Great Depression. Yeah, similar levels. A really
serious prediction to grapple with puts the whole
thing in perspective. Yeah, no kidding. That's
a different kind of impact altogether. Totally.
And, you know, while AI is pushing boundaries
creatively, like with that WSJ film, My Robot
and Me. Oh, I saw that. They made it using AI
tools. Right. No cameras. Exactly. Google VO3,
runway AI, over a thousand clips generated. But
the source points out that slop still exists.
Slop. What do they mean by that? Like imperfections
or glitches? Exactly. The equivalent of maybe
a weird visual artifact or dialog that doesn't
quite land right. It's not perfectly polished
yet. Needs that human touch. OK. So the tools
are powerful, but you still need that human oversight
to fix things up. Makes sense. Right. And speaking
of things not being perfect, the sources also
brought up Grok, Elon Musk's AI. Yeah. What about
it? Apparently repeating climate denial narratives.
Yeah. It was citing debunked and fringe viewpoints
in the name of providing, you know, balance.
Hmm. Citing debunked views for balance. That
really raises some big questions about the objectivity
of these tools, doesn't it? Like, where did they
draw the line? Is it starting to sound more like
Musk than science, as the source kind of hinted?
Absolutely. It's a huge challenge. And this leads
us to another crucial point the sources make,
which is really about the human element behind
all of this tech. It highlighted the ghost AI
raiders. the labelers, the moderators, the people
actually doing the work behind the scenes for
things like Google's Gemini. Okay. The people
who are doing the really painstaking work of
training and refining the AI, what about them?
Exactly. And they're fighting to unionize because
of like low pay, no perks, facing layoffs. Yeah.
Even their team leaders apparently get fired
pretty easily. Wow. So the people who are literally
making the AI function, making sure it understands
the world correctly, are facing these kinds of
conditions. It's that often invisible human labor
enabling the tech we all use. That's exactly
it. It's kind of the hidden human cost, you could
say, of this rapidly advancing technology. The
sources also touched on a few other quick developments.
Oh, yeah. Like what? Let's see. Google Photos
hitting its 10th anniversary with new tools.
Superblocks Clark for enterprise AI app building.
Okay. Humane raising a huge $10 billion venture
fund backed by NVIDIA and AWS, highlighting Saudi
Arabia's growing role in AI. $10 billion. Wow.
Yeah. And XAI paying Telegram. $300 million for
Grok distribution. Duke University giving students
free GPT -4 -0 access. So lots of money in access
changing hands. Definitely. And Anthropic reversed
its ban on using AI for job hiring, which is
interesting given the CEO's warning. And Google
teased something called Sign Gemma for translating
sign language to text. Sign language translation.
That's pretty cool. So a real mix of things happening
across the board. Yeah, a lot going on. Okay.
So we've looked at the personal connection, the
potential job disruption, the challenges of bias
and imperfection, and the human labor involved.
Let's shift gears a bit now and look at some
of the practical applications, the kind of new
tools popping up that your sources highlighted.
Right. Yeah. The sources listed several examples
of new playbooks and tools that show how AI is
being applied to specific everyday tasks right
now, things people can actually use. Like that
vibe coding playbook, an AI coding approach inspired
by like YC founders. That sounds pretty niche.
Exactly. It's taking AI and focusing it on a
particular skill set or gamma app. for creating
content quickly, you know, slides, websites,
social posts, without needing heavy design skills.
Oh, yeah. Making content creation way faster.
I can see the appeal there. And they mentioned
TapFlow 2 .0 for turning documents into sellable
guides. Uh -huh. Or... Jog .ai for whipping up
product photo or video ads instantly. Instant
ads. Wow. And what else? Tools like Kledo to
search like over 200 million profiles for sales
or hiring needs. 200 million. Jeez. Koso .ai
for automatically creating social posts from
branded content. And Underlord, which is apparently
an AI editor agent specifically for Descript,
the editing software. Okay, so these are just
quick snapshots from your sources showing how
AI is being used right now to automate or really
assist with very specific practical jobs. It
really shows the breadth of what's happening,
doesn't it? From code to content to sales. It
absolutely does. It's embedding itself into workflows
all over the place. And speaking of how these
tools work and where they get their information,
this next point was one of the most surprising
insights from your sources, I thought, about
something maybe people figured was... Well, on
its way out. Ah, you must be talking about SEO,
search engine optimization. That section title
really grabbed me. SEO is not dead. Yeah, exactly.
It really debunks the whole myth that AI killed
SEO or made it irrelevant. Based on research
analyzing like 25 ,000 real AI search queries,
they found this pretty surprising pattern. Okay,
I'm intrigued. What's the pattern they found?
Okay, so get this. If your website ranks number
one on Google for a particular search query,
you have about a 25 % chance of being chosen
as a source by AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity,
and even Google's own AI overviews. Wait, hold
on. So the AI is like actively pulling its information,
its source material, directly from the top's
Google results, even when it's generating its
own unique response? Precisely. That's what the
research indicates. The source explains it, and
apparently some insights came out during Google's
big antitrust trial. Oh, really? How does it
work then? Well, it's kind of like a three -step
thing. Step one, the AI selects the top documents
based on Google's highest ranking pages for that
query. Yeah, so it looks at the top of the SRP
first. Yep. Step two, it pulls the relevant answers
from those specific top sources it just selected.
Gotcha. Finds the juicy bits. And step three.
The models then generate a cohesive answer using
that information they just gathered from those
top -ranked pages. Okay, so Google rankings are
still the foundational layer, the starting point
for where AI gets its knowledge. That's actually
kind of counterintuitive, isn't it? That's what
the research strongly suggests, yeah. The top
10 results on Google still win. And the higher
your rank within that top 10, the higher your
visibility is going to be in these AI platforms.
Wow. It's like maybe less about having the best
overall pages anymore and more about having the
best specific answers that rank high on Google.
The best answers that rank high. That makes sense.
And the source mentioned something called micro
content here, right? Like niche content. Yeah,
exactly. Micro content, niche, hyper focused
content that directly answers very specific questions.
That's becoming like the most valuable digital
asset. Why is that? Because that's what these
AI models are looking for within those top ranked
pages when they're pulling information to synthesize
an answer. They want clear, direct answers. OK,
so the big takeaway there is, you know. building
that kind of modular intent first content that
answers specific questions and ranks high on
Google is still absolutely key, maybe even more
important now. Exactly. It helps you dominate
both traditional search and this new world of
AI visibility. It's kind of the underlying layer
for both, it seems. Fascinating stuff. Yeah,
absolutely. We covered a lot of ground here,
didn't we? From Gen Z potentially getting career
advice and maybe even therapy from AI. Right.
The personal connection. To these stark warnings
about potential job shifts, the often unseen
human labor that's actually powering these tools.
And the challenges like the AI not always being
objective, the slop. And then wrapping up with
this really surprising point about how AI still
relies so heavily on the existing web structure.
Yes. Specifically those top Google rankings.
It's a super complex picture, right? This mix
of personal reliance on AI for support, the potential
for massive economic disruption, the human cost
behind the technology that enables it all. Yeah.
And then the tech itself relying on existing
human curated systems like web pages and rankings.
It's all tangled up. It really is. So thinking
about all that, this whole tangled web of reliance,
you know, humans depending on AI, AI depending
on human systems and human generated content,
and even the human labor that trains the AI.
What does that ultimately mean for the future
of work and how we access information? What does
it really mean to trust an AI coworker or rely
on AI results knowing it's built on this foundational
human effort and existing web structures? And
knowing, as we saw with Grok, it can even spread
misinformation sometimes. Yeah, that's the big
layered question, isn't it? How does that complex
interplay shape everything? There's no easy answer
there. It's definitely something to really mull
over how all those pieces fit together and influence
each other going forward. Definitely food for
thought. Well, thanks for taking this deep dive
into these sources with us today. Really interesting
stuff. My pleasure. Always fascinating to unpack
this.