Week in Tech: The Antichrist, the Billionaire and God in the Machine

From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts. This is tech stuff. I'm Oz Valoscian and I'm caar Price. Today we're going to get into how Christianity is on the rise in Silicon Valley. Then on Chat to.

Me, I scrolled down to my very first interaction with chat and the first question was why have I been unlucky in love?

When AI advice goes wrong?

All of that on the weekend. Tech is Friday, October seventeenth. Hello Cara, Hi ahs. So the DAYSA came out, which is open ayes updated video generation tool and social media app. You said to me, people might look back on this as the day the Internet change forever.

I did say that, and I'm not a Pollyanna.

But I did think you drunk the kool aid.

No, I drank the truth juice.

I want some of that. Well, you know, I have to give you some credit because as the news has evolved and Sorra has kind of taken over the whole of social media, I think it's fair to say that you were right and I was wrong. This came home to me this week with a story about an AI homeless person prank. His modo ran a story about how kids are creating fake homeless people in AI images and then sending them to their parents, Like here he is arriving at the door. He says he's a friend of yours.

Friend to get Jeremy Carrasco, my dear friend, show tools AI to give these people some tutorial on how to pixel peep.

What would he say?

I think he would say.

To look closely at this homeless guy. You can kind of look at his teeth and his face and his eyes, and there will be things they're in that you can tell are not real.

But I also, I'm looking at the images like they're.

Very super real.

It's uncanny, though. I mean, to be a parent and to have a kid be like, what's this guy doing in our house? I guess I would call the police too.

Well. I mean, that's the thing I had some hesitation about bringing this story to you today. As the first story on the show.

Because because you knew I'd like it to.

Before I decided to bring to you the first story, I asked myself, what is the butt of this joke? Is the butt of this joke homeless people? Or is the butt of this joke gullible parents who freak out and sort of share this cultural terror of homeless people. Yeah, I don't know where it is between those two things. But what I think is really interesting about this sore A moment is it gives you a glimpse into the

Anyone who says that I overreact about manipulated video is wrong, like the fact that this is taking department resources to fend off a prank that is created by teenagers. And also these are not AI masterminds.

There's a kid, and the idea that you would need a swap team to respond is also kind of mind blowing. But this actually brings me to my main story of the week, because you know who preached charity and compassion and care for the homeless, JC, Jesus Christ. Here's what he had to say in the gospel. Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Oh my God.

It still somehow surprises me when people bring up Christianity in the same breath as Silicon Valley.

Why is that, well, I mean, it's surprising because the two were, for a while seemingly anathema. There's a line in the famous TV show about Silicon Valley called Silicon Valley where somebody says Christianity is order illegal in northern California, and Vanity Fair actually uses that quote in a headline about today's trend of Christianity rising in Silicon Valley.

You know, San Francisco has always struck me. And this is a joke. You know, as more about communes than communions.

It's always a good sign for a joke when you have to tell someone as a joke.

But I mean it, like, what what's happening here?

Okay, Well it's a huge question. And actually this is a somewhat personal story for me because a number of my friends who are not in Silicon Valley have recently turned to Christianity go to church every week. I think in search really community. Yeah, community structure.

I have found myself more drawn to synagogue recently, but we can talk about it.

I want to ask you exactly about that, because I've noticed that too. You talk about going to synagogue when you go to synagogue more than you did when I knew you.

Much more, much more.

Why.

I think because I'm in search of like a single place left in the universe that is somehow tech iastic. Now the irony is that the rabbis in the synagogue that I go to use iPads, but I would imagine they don't have notifications on.

Yeah, it's not a huge surprise that the resurgence of faith, partly in response, I think, to tech, as you've mentioned, is also happening where tech is made in Silicon Valley. But actually, what I think is particularly interesting is that Silicon Valley has always been drawn to countercultures. Yes, and the counterculture of ten years ago was psychedelics, burning man, polyamory. Then that became mainstream.

Now now it's polygamy. No, I'm kidding that.

Yeah, So now the old has become new, and it's revolutionary to be a Christian in Silicon Valley. So obviously the person I want to talk to you about this week is peed deal your faith, who I think embodies you know, both are swing to the right of the tech industry and the rise of Christianity. You're presumably familiar, like everybody else on the internet, with his lecture series

Who first, can I just ask you who he was inviting? Was this on zoom?

No, No, you could apply, you could go in person, and I think it was the crowd, as far as I understand, was male dominated, mid twentiesingly guys. And you know, Peter Teel obviously is the guy who found a pallenteer and PayPal, sued the website Gorper out of existence, and personally funded a huge portion of JD Vance's political rise. He's also about Christian and in his Antichrist lecture series, he posed a few questions about who the Antichrist might be.

That's fantastic. That's fantastic.

So I think it's important to understand a bit more about the nonprofit called the seventeen Collective That's Acts, which started holding speaking events and in person events actually last year, and they partner with Peter Teel on this event series. The group is named after Act seventeen, which is a chapter in the Bible which is all about the apostle Paul and how he goes to Greece to preach to intellectuals. Ah. I see, so there's a kind of sort of doing.

Yeah, absolutely absolutely.

There's also, according to the anti fair piece, a spreadsheet of secret Christians in tech that was being passed around before Christianity and Silicon Valley became mainstreamed.

And who is on this secret spreadsheet of Christians in Tech?

I don't know, but I can tell you who Some of the most prominent Silicon Valley Christiansky Jerry tan Who Jerry Tann.

Is, Yes, I do. He's the CEO of y Combine.

Look at that. He's the CEO Y Combinator, which is an extremely influential organization because if you're a young would be founder and you get the Y Combinator's seal of approval, you are off to the races, right. Another prominent Silicon Valley Christian is Pat Gelsinger, who's the former CEO of Internal that's one I didn't know. Maybe also a little less a little less reflex in today's Silicon Valley to

His wife founded it. Fascinating.

So, I mean, obviously these are major players in the tech world, but like, what is the Christianity that they believe in?

Well, I really don't want to speak for them about their faith. And I also, while I find some of this stuff quite a musing, and I also don't you know, I think it's faith plays such an important role in so many people's lives. But in the Vanity Fair piece, there is some interesting reporting on the broader interaction between

Are other people outside of these elite Silicon Valley types involved in this church well.

A pastor at a non denominational church that many of these folks go to said that during COVID his congregation swelled, in fact more than doubled in size. From a cynical point of view, that might not be surprising because some of the members of the church are also the most powerful people in Silicon Valley, and the church isn't necessarily the worst place to rub shoulders with the folks in high places.

So basically going to church as a networking opportunity.

Not for everyone. I'm sure there's good faith motivations to be there just for reasons of pure faith. But one Christian entrepreneur was quoted in the Vanity Fair piece saying, quote, I guarantee you there are people that are leveraging Christianity to get closer to Peter Teel.

I mean, it is interesting, this is on a sort of much grander stage. But like everybody goes to church to network in a certain way, so it's just I think this or higher here.

This story, though, really was.

About something that I don't want you to forget about, which is the Antichrist.

Don't worry, I wouldn't have done so. Peter Tiel gave this almost eight hour lecture series about the Antichrist, which was theoretically off the record, but of course immediately to the press.

You know, it's very funny that the guy who helped create the surveillance state through technology cannot seem to escape being surveilled. He couldn't even do an off the record lecture series even if he tried.

Well, he may be one step ahead of the game here, Old Peter, because he said, quote this is in the lecture. It's a pretty good marketing shtick. If you want everyone to hear about something, not to let anyone into the room. I'm not bragging, but I'm not totally incompetent either.

Any anybody who says I'm not bragging is the same person who says I have no assholes policy. It's like you are you love assholes, and you are bragging. So what were the lectures actually about.

Well, a lot of it, weirdly or maybe not weirdly, actually seemed to revolve around deregulation. The Washington Post got access to all eight hours of recordings and they reported quote Teal argued that critiques of technology and calls for stricter regulation by Greta Thunberg and others appear to echo biblical interpretations of an Antichrist who will win power by offering the world quote peace and safety from apocalyptic destruction.

So what he's saying is that anybody who wants to regulate technology or AI is essentially the devil.

That is the direction of That is the direction of the lecture series, apparently. But that's not the only possibility for what the Antichrist might be up to. Reportedly, Teal also said, quote is becoming quite difficult to hide one's money. An incredible machinery of tax treaties, financial surveillance, and sanctions architecture has been constructed, and he went on to say that while being rich might give you the illusion of having power, you have the sense that it could be taken away at any.

Moment all of a sudden. I feel bad for him.

So the idea that he's driving towards here is that this combination of regulation of financial oversight, if it being hard to hide your money, is quote a sign that a singular world government has begun to emerge that could be taken over by an antichrist figure who could then use it to exert control over people.

So someone like Donald Trump or Greta Tunberg exactly.

He did clarify that it's not Donald Trump, but he said interestingly, quote, if you, in a sincere, rational, well reasoned way, are willing to make the argument that Trump is the Antichrist, I will give you.

A hearing unbelievable.

He went on to say, if you're not willing to make that argument, maybe you have to be open to the possibility that he's at least relatively good unbelievable onn't these weird quotes? So then that Washington Post called up his spokesmhen Jeremiah Hall, who said, Peter doesn't believe Trump the Antichrist.

He's like, just to clarify he doesn't believe that.

His challenge was for Trump's liberal critics to make the case that if they want Peter to hear them out, they can, but he knows in practice they can't do that, and they won't do it.

So what is the obsession with the Antichrist?

I'm not sure if I'll be able to properly answer that question, but I can tell you that some Christians believe the Antichrist is the personal opponent of Christ, and they're expected the Antichrist to appear before the end of the world. Here's what Peter Teel said quote. My thesis is that in the seventeenth eighteenth century, the Antichrist would have been a doctor strange Love, a scientist who did

Very trumpy and fixation on like a young woman, you know what I mean?

Well no, well maybe that I latch onto Greta, because to be fair, he did surface other candidates. Drum roll Joe Biden.

So Joe Biden could be the Antichrist.

No, he's not charismatic enough. She shin ping anti Christ. Not charismatic enough, not charismatic enough. Bill Gates a quote very very awful person, but quote not remotely able to be the.

Anti I want to know why he thinks he couldn't be the Antichrist. I'm sure. I mean, it's obviously something offensive.

I think. I think, I think not being the Antichrist is a real dick at your charism.

It is like, you don't have the balls to be the Antichrist.

You don't have the balls to you don't have the balls or the shops exactly. Look, it's a weird and entertaining story, but it's also consequential. I mean, Peter Teel has.

A lot of power, that's true, he has a lot of power.

Legions of people, you know, hanging on as every word and going to this lecture series. But more to me because it speaks of a broader existential crisis that is sweeping many people.

I know.

Imagine building a I imagine thinking, oh my god, God is in the machine, like I'm actually making this product first time and it's talking back to me. It's very powerful. So this raises questions for anyone. I can imagine if anyone you know, what is consciousness is like, shoulday I have rights? Is it conscious? But on the flip side, what does it mean to be human? Somebody said to me the other day, we need to stop asking what AI is for and ask what humans are for.

I've heard that before, and I think that it's true.

I do, well, yeah, you go, you gotta go to church or syn But seriously, yeah, I think this return to a system of values that predates this terrifying and spectacular moment is not for nothing. I also one of my hobby horses is that we're living through a new renaissance.

Yes, you love to say this, Well.

I'm in the original renaissance where you had this extraordinary explosion of scientific invention, new ways of understanding the world, Leonardo, new ways of understanding the human body, the stars, the solar system. You also have the extraordinary concentration of wealth and power in the hands of people like the medic cheese, and you had a fundamentalist religious resurgence which hunts inquisition, burning people at the stake. So you know, in a sense, nothing is new.

Does this seem to be an agenda that he's pushing onto people or is it just like, come listen to my lectures if you're interested.

Well, I mean I think when he said I'm not totally incompetent, I knew if I told people it's a secret, everyone want to know about it. I think it's in the small prince.

After the break, satellites are falling out of the sky. The Dutch seized a microchip company, and chatchipt helps you get a date.

And we're back. Cara, Have you been following the continued drama in the world of microchips?

No, and you're obsessed.

I mean, this is geopolitics at the scale of something you know.

Micro, the smallest largest scale possible.

Macro meets micro exactly. So there's been a ton of microchip news this week. OpenAI announced a deal with the chip maker broad Com to make custom AI microchips just for them. Obviously, China announced this ban on the export of rare earth metals which will affect computer chips and in turn have got the tariff conversation buzzing again the stock market down. Most of that news has been pretty

And how do they know that these are Dutch microchips.

Well, when the weapons rain down from the sky into Ukraine, they break the weapons apart and they put out the microchip, and the microchip has the name of a Dutch manufacturer written on it. And this is actually brought as evidence recently to the Hague there were microchips in Russian weapons from two Dutch firms. Basically, what's going on is that third party countries are legitimately buying these microchips and then

Huh.

China has a semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in the Netherlands. What which just this week was seized. The company was taken over by the Dutch government.

The Dutch government has taken over a Chinese factory in the Netherlands.

That's right. How there is a law in the Netherlands called the Goods Availability Act, and this allows the government to quote intervene in privately owned companies in exceptional circumstances.

Interesting, So what does this mean exactly?

Something is happening. Yeah, where the boundaries between governments and private companies, which have been blurred consciously and purposefully in China since the eighties yea, now in the West are also blurring because these technologies are so critical to the national interest that governments are unwilling to let them stay purely in private hands if it's at the cost of strategically undermining their country or the European Union. I mean

I think you're right. I actually, I think you're right.

Also, these Russian weapons are not the only things falling out of the sky and causing concern.

What else is falling out of the sky.

According to futurism, Starlink and space X satellites are falling out of the sky.

But why are they falling out of the sky now?

Well, starlink satellites, I now know, only lasts about five years and they're supposed to basically burn up as they re enter. But scientists are now concerned that when they do burn up, they release materials into the atmosphere, which, according to one study, could be devastating for the ozone.

Oh no, the poor ozone layer.

I no, it's like the nineties. It's like, oh god, we were.

So worried about ozone in the nineties.

Remember well, I know, and it got a little better, but now it could be in jeopardy again. Right now, about two to three satellites fall each day out of the eight thousand starlinks, like a lot of satellites. Well it's going to get a lot more because between Starlink, Amazon System, and other companies from around the world, the FAA predicts that by twenty thirty, about twenty eight thousand fragments could survive re entry.

This should have been the lead story.

I knew, you see, I knew, Like space Jenny.

Thirty five is like tomorrow. That's like ten years.

If I were doing anything right now, I'd be investing in the manufacture of helmets, Like, what kind of helmet is going to protect me from a satellite falling from the sky.

That's very funny. I actually there are private companies who are specializing now in hunting the rumbas of the sky, hunting space junk.

That's brilliant.

I have another crazy story for you, and it has nothing to do with satellites and has everything to do with attachment styles.

Anxious avoidant is that Yes, you're exactly.

Is that what you are?

Did you just give yourself away a little bit? No, you're I think you're secure attached.

Okay, good. I like that.

The Guardian put out this piece about how people are turning to chat GPT to help them with initial text exchange. You know, I mean, I know it's been a long time for you, but when you first meet someone, you're putting your best foot forward.

I see. So Basically, rather than saying to your friends, hey, what should I say? Or they've aby so blah blah, you just plug it in through it to get your friends.

Forget your friend. A friend of mine always says this about chatcheebe.

Now She's like, we haven't spoken in a few days because I have chat, Like that's it for no other reason that like, I have somebody else to talk to now.

So this is dating advice.

This is dating advice, but it's not dating advice in the in the macro sense. It's hyper specific dating advice on the basis of the actual conversation that you're having with a person that you match on a dating app. So the people, the kids are calling this chatfishing chatfishing, yes, which I really like the.

Idea, with the idea being that the chatchiptas are much better conversationalist than you are, so you're you're essentially chatfishing. And then the reality is you meet this other person who's completely taciturnin and chomless, and then you realize you've been chatfished. Is that I'm done.

I don't have to tell any more of the story. That's what chatfishing. That's exactly what chatfish. So there was a woman in the story named Rachel, and actually I was reading her bio and I'm.

Like, is it me.

She's thirty six, she's a business owner, and she'd been chatting with a match on hinge for the last three weeks. What she said was that the conversations were refreshing. Her match kept asking her open ended questions, some of them felt like they were straight from a self help book, but they also got into ridiculous subjects too, like sharing memes and having inconsequential debates like do you like ketchup versus Mayo?

So they decide to meet up. She was very shocked to.

Find that when she met him on the in person date, he was so flat. Unfortunately, Rachel had been chatfished before, so she kind of knew the signs of someone offloading their conversations to chat GPT to herself. She was like, I'm gonna give this guy one more chance, and she did, and because they hung out again and he was as flat as ever, she didn't keep trying. She knew and what she said in the article really made me laugh.

Poor thing.

She said, I'd already been chat gbt'ed into bed at least once. I didn't want it to happen again.

This brings us to our final segment each week, which is Chatting Me.

This week we heard from Mary in Florida. Mary is thirty two years old and describes herself as a chronic CHATCHYBT user, or at least she used to be.

Mmm, she started to tap out.

I wonder why well she got disillusioned.

Mary says she started using chat gybt in late twenty twenty four, and she very quickly found herself relying on it for just about anything that popped into her mind.

From learning how to thaw a frozen twelve pound turkey and under twenty four hours, to fitness advice to creating funny Ai've generated in of my Dog.

But Mary started to notice that one topic kept coming up over and over, and that's the concept of what we were just talking about.

Love.

I scrolled down to my very first interaction with chat and the first question was why have I been unlucky in love?

Isn't this interesting? I mean, this is like one of the great newspaper media inventions of the twentieth century was the Advice a Vice comlument, Love Advice column and I Love Call in show.

So when she asked, the answers that Chat gave her were a list of seven potential factors that could be contributing to her dating struggles, and she initially found them really helpful.

A little while later, though, she.

Found herself in a new relationship that started getting tumultuous, and so she turned to Chat again.

Is this when the problem started? Yes.

Mary found that Chat's advice and the ability to find patterns was useful for a while. She says it felt like it was validating her intuitions and teaching her to try trust her gut, which was a good thing. But then, she said, she started depending on it way too much, and she stopped thinking so critically about her own intuitions, and she found herself assuming the worst of her partner, even when it went way against the way she'd preferred to handle a difficult situation.

It stripped me of my humanity and led me to believe things that were not necessarily true and fed my delusions.

Well, thank goodness Mary realized this and lived to tell the tale. Because, as we've reported on this show in that episode we did with Kashmi Hill, this can go a much docopov.

Yeah, And one of the reasons she sent us a voice memo is because she wanted to warn others of the psychological dangers of AI and what can happen when you become codependent on a chatbot for self growth.

I actually I really like this chat.

In me because I think we keep coming back to over and over again the deficit that arises with co and of offloading.

You know, and I mean I know it for myself.

The truth is part of growing up, and part of parenting, and part of teaching, and part of actually being a boss is encouraging people to know when to ask and know when to trust themselves. But the problem with the chatbot is it's incentives, so they want to keep you in there. They don't. The chat that will never say to you, go trust yourself.

It's time to.

Trust stread your wings. We want to hear from you, our listeners, so please do send your chap stories tart inbox Textuff Podcast at gmail dot com.

That's it for this week for tech stuff.

I'm care Price and I'm os Valoshin. This episode was produced by Eliza Dennis, Tyler Hill and Melissa Slaughter. It was executive produced by me Kara Price, Julia Nutter, and Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katrina Norvelle for iHeart Podcasts. Jack Insley makes this episode and Kyle Murdoch wrote our theme song.

Join us next week for conversation about all the ways the Internet can fued our paranoia, especially during pregnancy.

And please do rate and review the show wherever you listen, and reach out to us at tech Stuff podcast at gmail dot com. We love hearing from you.