Week in Tech: The Year of the Robot?

From Kaleidoscope and iHeart podcasts. This is tech stuff. I'm as Volocian and I'm care Price.

Today We've got two big stories to break down for you. First, it's Silicon Valley's Westminster Dog Show. Journalists, tech nerds, industry insiders are in Vegas this week to check out the Consumer Electronics Show. Then, is your grocery store spying on you?

And then a few other things that caught our eye this week, including Silicon Valley's.

New rave culture fueled by.

Chinese peptides and the exceptionally creative influencers and OnlyFans models getting US visas.

All of that on the Weekend Tech. It's Friday, January ninth. Hello Cara, hi Azi, How are you very good?

Happy New Year, Happy New Year to you too.

So it's our first Weekend Tech of the year.

It is very excited.

Right before the holidays.

People like to do roundups the best of the year that went by at the start of the year.

People like to do.

What's going to happen?

What's going to happen?

I'm you know what my tech prediction is, what I'm going to be addicted to my father.

Yeah, that's not a prediction. That's just as a guarantee.

That's a prophecy.

I do actually have one big prediction for you. Tell me so.

I think that people are going to look back at twenty twenty six as the year that AI really entered the physical world. And I think that became quite clear this week at the Consumer Electronics Show. But I actually wanted to frame this conversation up about CS with an essay I read late last year by faith fee Lee.

Tell me about it.

Faith a Lee is the godmother of AI. She is you wrote this blog post.

The title is from Words to Worlds. Spatial intelligence is AI's next frontier. To have any idea what that means, I.

Mean I can guess spatial intelligence meaning like that our whole world is sort of mapped with AI.

Pretty much so is machines in the world with sensors, and it's creating fully simulated worlds that.

Obey the laws of physics. Basically, faith a Lee made the case that llms, which power chatbots, are amazing, but they're kind of almost like trapped in Plato's cave in a weird way because they're not actually seeing the world. They're reading text and data that humans or other machines have recorded about the world and then extrapolating what the world is like from records of the world, rather than looking at the world, ingesting it, and understanding its rules

And a lot of others think might be kind of the next revolution in computing. It's computers that can actually understand the world for themselves rather than interpret it based on descriptions of the world. And she basically has argued that this will be the next frontiering computing, and that to really deliver on the Alan Turing thinking machine promise, it can't just be words and numbers. It has to

Well, I was just thinking.

An incredible thing to think about is I've talked to you ad nauseum for the last day or two about my dog that I've been fastering.

Yeah, and I just think about a new concern.

That I have all day long, is like what's going on with this dog when I'm not with this dog? But like, what if I could have a robot that could tend to this dog as like a shadow? And you're thinking about, like, oh, how does the physical world interact with the robot world?

Like imagine a dog is like I have my mom or I have my dad, and then I have.

My robot Alpha, who is like the robot self that takes care of the dog too.

And who's the real boss You're at the robot.

Yeah, that's when robots take When dogs are.

Listening to the dog, you and the robot are standing next to each other and you're like.

Come here, come here, pal, and the dog goes up to the robot.

That's that's the future.

That is that's when humans, by the way, dogs answering to robots is when humans will really be like, we got to get these robots out of the question.

I think that's right. What about you do you have any twenty twenty.

These predictions, Well, this is not a prediction that I've invented. This is a prediction that's based on a lot of reading that I've done on Business Insider and the Ft and.

Showing off.

Sor Tim Cook. I think is going to step down from Apple.

I saw a headline about that. I didn't dive too deep on it. What are people saying.

He's nearing retirement age, which, you know, it's not something that's going to be like a hostile takeover, you know. I think it's not going to be something that the average person like finds perceptible as far as change. I think that he will step down and kind of lead from behind the scenes. A lah a Jeff Bezos, I mean it's a hard job.

I guess Apple's obviously a behemoth. And you know, the iPhone sales have been robust. The other stuff they've tried, like the vision pro goggles they've stepped back from the car never happened.

The TV thing is kind of I mean, it's not.

You know what I was actually thinking about it apples TV has worked, like if you look at the Emmys and the Critics' Choice Awards and the Golden globes like they've kind of dominated this year. True in a way that I mean, I don't know if you would attribute that to Tim Cook necessarily.

But I guess if he could choose an Emmy or having invented chet GPTR.

Respectology colleagues on the West Coast.

That's absolutely true. That's absolutely true.

You know. The other thing is that, speaking of our friends in Hollywood, the thing that I've noticed a lot of retired men do is they start production companies because they like to be in the entertainment business. So who knows, maybe Tim Apple will start a production company with Apple Studios.

I have no idea.

So yes, my prediction is the robot will enter the room and yours this Tim Apple will exit the room.

That's right, Okay, perfect.

One tech CEO. I don't think it's going anywhere, is Jensen.

He's not going back to Dennis.

He's not going back to Denny's.

I wonder if he passes Denny's and he's like, I can't.

No, I'm sure.

I feel like it's a big part of his mythology. He was at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, of coursees delivering a keynote, and I count with my twenty twenty six prediction before I read his remarks, which is probably quite dumb, but because he is remarked, luckily we're in line with my twenty twenty six prediction. He said this will be the year when there's a chet GPT moment for physical AI. This is not a disinterested statement.

Yes, I saw that, and this is.

Pretty interesting because previously you had Tesla sales falling Waymo as the dominant players in US self driving robotaxis, and it seemed like a two horse race. But part of in Vidia's announcement was a partnership with Mercedes where they're basically going to plug their software into other car makers.

They're in the car business.

They're not in the car business, but they're all of a sudden kind of a competitor to their clients, right, which is really interesting.

That is very interesting. Do you think it's something that's going to work.

I wouldn't.

I mean you you're you're the Innvidia shareholder that's against your dear leader.

No, No, I wouldn't.

And I think it's very smart to not actually be in the car design business. I think it's very smart to like put your software in a pre existing car.

Probably if you're if you're Mercedes who are doing the partnership, or other auto makers, you're like, oh, this like a hail. Mary's well, I think we have a chance of plugging this in and catching up, which is which is really really interesting. But he wasn't just talking about this self driving car partnership. He was pointing at this kind of robotic revolution. He likes hanging out with robots. We talked about Earli last year. Remember he got the high five from the humanoid robot.

On his trip I Do, I Do?

And another king of the self driving car world, Elon himself is kind of seemingly more interested in.

Humanoid robots than self driving cars. Now he's moved on, he's moved on.

He's definitely this time last year, optimist robot was hanging out with Kim, and it seemed last year like a pure gimmick. And now twelve months later there's a big Wall Street Journal story saying that Elon is pivoting the whole business to be human optimist robots.

So it is interesting as this year I'd like to meet Kim. This year we'll see.

So humanoid robots stole the show at CS this year.

Did you see any of the videos?

Yes?

What did you? What did you see?

I think it was? Was it Tesla that I saw?

You? Mintioned Tesla. I'm going to show you Boston Dynamics.

Dynamics, Yes, show me the spot the dog famously they did.

They've now got Atlas, the person a.

Booty hun her.

What are you seeing?

So I'm seeing the biggest nerd on the planet.

It kind of reminds me of Elizabeth Holmes when something good happens with Faranos coming out and doing like one of those like kick dancers.

It's an extremely flexible humanoid robot doing cotwheels, doing Russian Cossack dancing.

That is what it is, russian'd.

Yeah, it's incredible that they've trained them to do this.

It is And so Hyundai, who actually bought Boston Dynamics lost this robot Atlas.

It can lift up to one hundred and ten pounds.

It can work in temperatures between minus four degrees fahrenheit up to one hundred and four degrees.

Assud of the problem of needing cooling centers.

You don't and actually the battery is pretty amazing as well.

Last time, like when humanoid robots were last on sixty minutes, had these huge hunchback of notre.

Dam story packs, battery packs.

But now it's just a pure human form essentially, which is kind of interesting. They're planning to produce thirty thousand of these robots per year, with the goal of them working on factory flos by twenty twenty eight.

They're like, humans can't work in hard enough environments. We need to make robot.

Well, I mean, I guess.

It's a that's a good thing.

It could be a good thing.

I mean, I look, I don't know if these are actually going to replace humans on the factory floor, but certainly they've got everyone talking about Hyundai for the first time in a while, I don't talk about human So those are humanoid robots designed by Hyundai to be factory workers. LG, another South Korean tech firm, also made waves of cs this year with its robot called Cloyd Cloud. Lloyd claud Lloyd Cloud exactly, which ladders up to a vision.

Do you know what the vision is?

What is the vision?

The zero labor home that's I'm looking for.

I was just thinking, if I have to do another load of laundry, like it's Sissifian the cloud.

Literally Cloyd literally does the laundry.

Can I try this?

Yeah, of course, Eliza.

Cloyd can remove dishes from the dishwasher, what heat up food in the oven? This is this is not a domestic home now, this is domestic laborer.

Oh my god.

It can interact seamlessly with other LG devices like your fridge and your cooker.

So it is the connected home that then has the robot that's running your connected.

The robot is the is the conductor to the symphony of your connected home.

Not particularly opposed to this, I got to.

Say these were of the only humanoid robots who took CS by storm. There was also the switchbot one row h one that can fill a coffee machine, make breakfast, wash the windows. And then there's the one EX Neo robot. This one is kind of interesting because it doesn't have the best fine motor control, which I think is true

It's like Avatar.

Can you imagine buying your robot and then having somebody sitting four thousand miles away in your house, yes, doing your domestic.

Robots.

The jobs created by robots are people working thousands of miles away to operate robots in your home.

It's a bizarre Also.

Like I wouldn't really want camera in my home, which is external.

And we'll talk about this in my next story. But there are also places where I don't want cameras.

Yeah, I want to hear about that.

Just before we turn away from CS, there was some other robots which are pretty cool but not humanoid. Tell me there's the anchor Uphie s two vacuum. It's rumba with them up and it can travel between carpeted areas, then go to the hard floor to mop it, come back to the carpeted area. No water spilled, anything like that. And Cara has an aromatherapy.

Diffuser, Oh my god.

And then finally smart fridges which can scan your empty packages and add them to a shopping list for the next grocery run. So it's a camera inside the fridge that accesses an app while shopping, so.

Kind of remind you either on nine or in the real world. Yeah, or you need to buy it.

I mean it is like on a macro level, pretty incredible the way in which technology is like filling the gaps and what humans can do, and also just like taking care of time, Like all these things are very time intensive. The question is is like is it time that we want to eradicate, Like do we want to not.

Go to the grocery store. What are we supposed to be doing instead.

Working on our computer?

Exactly?

That is the conundrum of the I have to work all the time, so then when do I do things which are non compensated labor but very important, like yeah, the house up is that? That's like, yes, so I never I never do the things that I need to do which are not directly work related, Like I have such a long list of annoying personal things.

We call it personal ad personal admin.

Yes, I never get through it. Yes, I don't know if, but it doesn't tend to be still if the robot could do not yet not yet.

I mean I still think the idea of like, I live in an apartment building where not only humans live, but a humanoid robot lives.

Like how far out are we on.

That you will go to somebody's house this year, I bet, and they'll have a robot.

That's crazy. Okay, we'll see. I obviously did not get to Cees this week. I did, though, get to Wegmans.

The grocery store, yes, the grocery.

Store, because I read this article in the Gothamis that the grocery store chain was using facial recognition software in their NYC location.

Well wow, what did the goemists find out about this?

So actually, a city law in twenty twenty one requires stores to put up a sign if they use facial recognition software, so Wegmans complied. The funny thing is I went to Wegmans, and I really had to search for this sign. And Wegmans might disagree with me because there was a sign on the door, But the way in which I had to look for it, because it was like sliding in and out of view on the automatic door, really made me laugh.

So you went to Wegmans looking for the sign, you hadn't been looking for the sign, you wouldn't have seen it.

So there were people that I talked to and I pointed out the sign to them when I went to the store, and they were like, no, I.

Didn't notice that.

I didn't recognize that.

I didn't see that.

Because if you're not looking for it, I think we're so used to just seeing signs up and if there don't apply, Like, I've never looked at pet signs until recently.

So you found the sign. What did it say?

It said, quote biometric identifier information collected at this location. Then, in much finer print, quote Wegman's Food Market, Inc. Collects, retains, converts, stores, or shares customers biometric identifier information, which may include facial recognition, eye scans, and voice prints.

Of those two verbs, converts and shares stand out to me as convert, I'm like converts into what shares with whom?

So Gofmus actually asked Wegmans about how they were storing the data, how long they were storing it for, and how the company would share this data with law enforcement.

Surprise surprise, Wegmans did.

Not reply, Okay, what you've been been bearing the leave for a while. Now.

What this is is this? What is this is a customer retention to safety thing safety.

Yes, so the sign says, quote, we use facial recognition technology to protect the safety and security of our patrons and employees and do not lease, trade, or otherwise profit from the transfer of biometric identify or information.

It is interesting because like in New York they now have like you know these like plastic.

Covers on everything in CBS.

So that you can't sell the people shoplift.

I mean, this is just replacing the old Have you seen.

This person right now?

You know what I mean?

Like, you go into any bodega or any sort of like smoke shop and there's been a shoplifter and they have a photo from the camera that is so blurry that you can't even see if this person is a person. Now, what we have is a company that has a lot of money to invest in software and basically they can capture any face and cross reference that face if that face has been known to shoplift.

Yeah, but it's also like if you haven't been shoplifting. Like the idea that you can be personally identified every time you go into a shop and cross reference to older weird.

It's like, you know, you didn't leave your wallet in the shop.

You left your whole identity there that's right to be shared, converted, and whatever else that will.

It's just a very strange phenomenon. So I actually talked to a few people, and luckily I had a very intelligent woman who had seen the same Gothmass article I had. I approached her and said to her, you, did you know that facial recognition technology was being used at this Wegman? She said, I knew it was being used at Wegmans. I thought it was at the Wegmans in Brooklyn, and that she actually hadn't clocked the side in the Manhattan store.

I want to hear the tape.

Do you feel comfortable with your biometrics oatomy collected by a large grocery stoarch?

I know, I actually had the thought right as I walked in here. I was like, maybe I should put my little scarf around my field wearing.

A really cute scarf right now.

Maybe you should use it or like a giant pair of sunglasses. Yeah no, I mean, I guess the way I feel about it is like I'm not sure that it is going to impact me personally. In any real way. But I think there are certain people for whom it's really bad. Yeah, you know, I'm like a white lady who.

Is like.

Economically mobile, and so I'm sort of like not worried about it for myself, which I guess is why I still came in here. But on principle, yeah, I think it's bad.

You know, it's actually interesting she was wearing this kind of cravat that was this little cashmir brown scarf, and her idea to cover her face with a scarf is actually a good one. Four or four recently published an article about anti surveillance design, which you and I have talked about, remember in terms of three M and the Hong Kong protests.

Yeah.

Four. A fourth point is like, facial recognition tech is complicated, but actually tricking it is very easy and the most effective tool you can use to trick facial recognition technology is actually a mask.

Is Wegman's an outlier here or the other? I mean this you big quich is?

I know, for example, when you go to the airport, you can sometimes shop with your.

First like the f out Actually no, it's not just Wegmans.

There are stores of Albertson's Walmart, Kroger's are all using it in some of their locations.

I think also Home Depot, Low's, Macy's. I mean, I think a lot of people won't care.

Yeah, and a lot of people will just say, I've been surveilled. What is this, as we used to say, a little sprinkle of lder going to do to my day to day? If I'm not someone who should be worried about shoplifting, And to that, I say, what if it's not forever about shoplifting?

Right after the break, the P.

And GLP ones are having a moment and only fans models are getting very special US visas.

Stay with us and we're back. Does the word peptide mean anything to you?

My friends are always like the peptides, the peptides and my skincare and the peptide what I think they use skincare that have like peptides that titans their face.

Have they been to peptide raves apps?

I mean, unless you're talking about the their bathroom now.

Well.

The New York Times had a great story this week with the headline Chinese peptides are the latest biohacking trend in the tech world. It had one source saying quote the elites all have a Chinese peptide dealer, and it follows several Silicon Valley workers, all between twenty and forty who are buying unregulated peptides from China with the hope that it will improve their health, their sleep, their fitness, and their focus.

But what is it?

I mean? I know peptides are like protein.

What is Peptides are amino acids that regulate hormones in the body and reduce in flammation, which is why it's a popular ingredient I learned in skin care products. It's also and I didn't know this embarrassingly, the P in GLP one.

I didn't know that just until this very moment. So the p peptides improve health.

They're good. People like them, But why do they like them? Like, what do people say that they do?

People are claiming that different types of peptides work for different types of ailments.

Peptides is like.

A catsual term for these collections of amino acids, and people are using all kinds of different peptides for different purposes. So people say that these peptides can stimulate wound healing with by stimulating new blood vessel growth, better sleep, of course, weight loss, increase focus. One of the weirdest things was improving eye contact. Quote from the story, One Open AI researcher called it a zepic for autism. There have been

Just like the worst case scenario use.

Well, in the worst case scenario is probably you die.

Right, So I'm just saying like in terms of like people who are using glps are not generally like going to shoot them up festivals.

Well, that's what this is about. These raves are like basically people are going to these parties with DJs where all of these peptides, a DJ and a peptide, all of these peptides are available, and somebody else is teaching you how to make your own peptide cocktail. The time that you went through a few of these raves, and there are pictures of the raves in the article. People are like have a needle in their arm with tape with like a disco background.

Oh so they can just like get fed, get fed peptides.

Yeah yeah, Is this legal. It's kind of in a gray area.

Personal use is legal, and buying directly from suppliers is legal, but very few peptides are FDA approved, and so biohackers are very much injecting at their own risk. As the woman whose hair fell out may testify. What's kind of interesting is this is not as niche as you might imagine.

The rave piece isn't the rave piece.

Is pretty niche.

In fact, you look at the photos in the New York Times, it's like only a New York Times journalist could describe that as.

A rave It's like four people in a room with purple light.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah.

But as a party, I guess at best, imports of peptides and hormones from China doubled.

I was going to ask why China, and then I was like, I know the yes they make.

So in twenty twenty four, there were one hundred and sixty four million dollars worth of Chinese peptides imported to the US in the first three quarters of the year. In twenty twenty five, three hundred and twenty eight million exactly double, which is three twenty million dollars of Chinese peptides.

Which makes you one, does it work or is there just hype?

I mean JLP's work.

Have you ever had an I.

Listen, Honestly reading the article, I was like, Wow, if I had a lot more time on my hands and I was a little bit more crazed, I can easily imagine going down this rabbit hole.

Yeah here all you kind of can, though, just with like very cursory use of GLP wan like a lot of people, I mean basically everybody.

I know. Yeah, I'm also exploring. You're exploring I.

Am exploring wait no, for mental health benefits.

So that was one of the things mentioned in the article, microdosing GLPS for mental health. But you know, it's like the promise that rather than like going to the gym four times a week and meditating for forty five minutes a day and going on a walk and looking at the.

Sky back to your it goes back to what you're saying, which is this list of all the stuff that you have to do when you're not working is really hard to do, Like, can I achieve it with this coat that.

I can buy on line? Yes, so it's tempting.

I actually, luckily I don't have enough time to go down the rabbit hole, but I but I can imagine.

I can imagine maybe you could have a robot that could stranger things.

Stranger things.

Absolutely, I want to pivot. But do you consider yourself an exceptional creative?

Have you been reading my LinkedIn again?

I've been reading your thoughts because I take Pepta and I read this article that said influencers and only fans models dominate the US extraordinary artist visa, and I thought of you.

I saw that story. I didn't read it, but I'm glad to bring it up.

And you know why I thought of you.

Because I had one visa.

It was not because you were selling feed picks.

I was reached for a time deemed by the US government an extraordinary artist.

So do you know where this this I learned for the first time reporting the story. Do you know where it came from? The one visa came from no idea.

So these visas were created because in the nineteen seventies, the Nixon administration was trying to deport John Lennon put over his politics. But Lenin was able to stay in the US because he was deemed an outstanding person in the arts and science.

So you and John Lennon, Wow, and now a lot of only fans.

Creators and boy George and Shinnan O'Connor wow. Yes.

The FT reports that currently an overwhelming number of people getting approved for OH one visas are influencers and OnlyFans models. One lawyer who was interviewed called them scroll kings and I love, I.

Really love scroll kings and queens.

The number of scroll kings and queens has actually, like peptide use, doubled since twenty ten.

Wow, and why is applicants looked upon so favorably by the case officers at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Bureau.

Some immigration lawyers said that follower account makes a difference. The visa process is complicated and requires a lot of paperwork.

No, been true, But that's interesting at the follow account because much like with the large iguage models, where if it doesn't exist in writing, doesn't exist. Yeah, in your one visa application, it doesn't exist if you can't measure it well. You need to come up with all of these very concrete numbers to demonstrate reach and influence and blah blah, blah so and who.

Can demonstrate reach and influence better than an influencer or someone with an only fans account, no one, you know. I think there are other people who have these visas who might be able to say, Okay, I'm in a major film or I'm in theater productions, you know, and get recommendations from experts in their field. These only fans models and influencers are like, look, I have twenty million followers, let me stay in the country.

And how many exceptional talent visas are given out each year?

Are you fishing?

Only twenty thousand visas were granted in twenty twenty four, and the majority of visas are still h one b's yeah, your exception. That's it for this week for tech stuff, I'm Karra Price.

And I'm os Vloschin.

This episode was produced by Eliza Dennis and Melissa Slaughter. It was executive produced by me Caarra Price, Julian Nutta, and Kate Osborne for Kaleidoscope and Katrina.

Novelle for iHeart Podcasts.

The engineer is Mike Coscarelli and Jack Insley mikes this episode.

Kyle Murdoch wrote our theme.

Song, Please rate, review and Reach out to us at tech Stuff Podcast at.

Gmail dot com. We want to hear from.

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