You're listenings camp I AM six forty the Bill Handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio APPMI AM six forty Chaco, Tuesday, February twenty five, As we continue on with our show, Mike Dubuski, ABC News Technology reporter with us this morning. It is a Tech Tuesday. Good morning, Mike.
Good morning, Happy tex Tuesday.
Yeah, I'm always a pleasure. Okay. A story about Apple and when Apple invests, it's generally not forty six dollars, it's some big dollars. And in this case, five billion dollars. What's that about?
Yeah, half a trillion dollars. You're absolutely right that Apple is not making investments to the tune of like scratch off cards there anything like that. These are high dollar investments, specifically in American tech infrastructure, and what that essentially means is that they are in part building actual infrastructure. They are building a factory in Texas that is designed to make AI servers, they say, But they're also going to
go on a hiring spree. They plan to hire about twenty thousand new employees over the course of the next four years. Those employees are going to be focused on research and development, silicon investing, and of course artificial intelligence, which is exactly what this is all about. This is a major bet on the future of AI. Apple has their own branding for their generative artificial intelligence tools called
Apple Intelligence. This seems to be the technology, the sort of back end stuff that's going to underpin the future of Apple Intelligence.
Now, when you talk about servers and building servers and these huge warehouses, I mean we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars, one hundred thousands of square feet jammed full of computer gear and takes enormous amount of energy and incredible air conditioning systems. Are they building those at a rapid rate? Because what the Internet is growing, or it was growing astronomically, has that slowed down? And is that building still going up? That kind of building?
Yeah, what you're talking about. There are data centers which are increasingly becoming these really central pieces of the tech puzzle in the United States. And what the data center is is essentially, like you said, a big building full of computer servers, just a big sort of warehouse style thing. Not many people in a security guard, a couple of
technical officials. But companies can to those buildings and say, hey, I want a row of computers, or I want this little neighborhood of computer servers, I'm going to rent that out. And these data center companies basically act as landlords and they say, yeah, you can have this for this price, and then you get all this computing power. The reason for that is because when you open an app on your phone or you try to run a program on your computer, oftentimes it's not your computer or your phone
that's actually running that technology. They're offloading some of that work to these data centers, in part because the programs that we rely on every day are just so computer intensive, just so energy intensive. So that's why these data centers are important. And arctual intelligence generative AI is very computer intensive to a degree that we really have before with other existing technologies. So these data centers are becoming really important.
And with Apple's five hundred billion dollar investment, part of that money is going to this factory to build these AI servers in partnership with this Taiwanese firm called fox Con. These are the servers that are going to go into data centers that are springing up across the country. So that's kind of the idea here. Some of these data centers are owned and operated by companies whole cloths, Apple, Microsoft, Google all have their own, but there's also like third
party data centers that are kind of like the landlords. Right. They offer the energy, they offer the air conditioning, and then you, as the tech company, go in and place your own computers kind of where you want them. So it's a really interesting piece of the sort of back end of the American tech infrastructure, and one that clearly is coming into clear focus with Apple's half a trillion dollar investment and also similar investments from companies like open Ai.
All right, so Apple, Well, I'll talk about Amazon in a minute, because that's our next segment. But when you tech about these data centers, is it like a clearing house of information, much like you have a clearing house of banking. The Swift system where everybody comes together and then the money flows out under Swift is the same thing happening here.
So it depends, right, It depends on what the data center is used for. As we said, some companies own their own use them for the purposes. For example, some data centers might be just used for cloud computing at Google, right, they might be used to underpin Google drive. Similarly, Apple might use the data center to underpin iCloud or Apple Intelligence or some combination of the technologies that need all this energy really pass How.
Big of how big a system is this, because we don't hear much about this. Is this one of those zillion dollar industries?
Yeah, it's huge and it's growing. And in fact, I visited a data center that was springing up in Orangeburg, New York, which is about a half an hour north of New York City, in the fall, and it was, you know, under construction at the time. They were investing you know, several hundred million dollars in this facility as a company called Data Bank that was spinning this up and it was set to open in about two months.
And I got to say, when I was walking around, you believed that, you know, it's like these things are getting a lot of attention, a lot of construction power is going into these sort of facilities. As I said, they're just basically big warehouses that you know, you put computers in, not a ton of people. You need the staff to run them. But there's another concern that comes
along with all this technology, which is energy consumption. Right, because one, you need energy, need electricity to pull from the grid to run the computers in your service, but you also need to run air conditioning and cooling units to keep those computers cool and to keep them functioning. So they are big draws on the energy grid, and that is something that we haven't really reckoned with yet. We haven't really figured out a solution to making these
things climate friendly and environmentally friendly. You can imagine as AI spins up and becomes more prominent, that is going to become an increasing concern.
All right, I want to go back for a moment to Amazon, the Amazon story where you reported that Amazon is going to hire twenty thousand new employees regarding that huge AI tech investment. Now, Amazon had a whole bunch of layoffs, and I don't know how many are those people going to go back to work, and how does that connect with twenty thousand new employees.
That's a very good question. I'm not sure, but they certainly are spinning up a new slate of technologies, and that is kind of what you know they are touting. This week. There's this big event in New York City scheduled for tomorrow. It's expected to be an event all about Alexa, which is, of course, Amazon's very popular voice assistant.
Back in twenty twenty three, Amazon said that they were going to make this big revamp of Alexa to kind of fallen behind some competitors like Google Assistant that are out there just in terms of functionality and ease of use in what have you. And Amazon says that by adding generative artificial intelligence to this technology, it's going to
get a lot easier to use. And you can imagine that is going to have a lot of people on the back end working to make sure that this technology doesn't go awry as we've seen it in the past. You know, these generative artificial intelligence models often make things up, they hallucinate, they get things wrong, and that requires sort of moderation teams and engineering teams to be on call
in order to figure that out. We're going to get a better look at it tomorrow to see if that actually plays in the real world world the way that Amazon wants it to. I think there's a lot of risk here, especially when you consider the sort of unreliability of some of these AI systems, but that is what they say is going to make this voice a system a lot more competitive going forward.
All right, And what I normally do whenever we talk about Alexa, is I refer to those of you that are listening who have an Alexa in your house and you have kids asleep Alexa louder louder.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. You got to give the disclaimer every time you do a voice assistant segment. You know, I'm sorry, We've we've lit up all the Alexa devices around southern California this morning.
Yeah's lovely, I love it. I love it.
Hey.
In terms of the new technology, it's I have friends, my daughter as a matter of fact, and my daughter's roommate who had a great job at Amazon. She lost her job. Not my daughter, but the roommate lost your job and is a very skilled computer person. That goes right into if you somehow are moving into the computer engineering in the world of AI. How hot a market
is that? Is that the way you remember it used to be, where if you had any kind of computer skills, you could walk across the street for a ton more money and then walk back for even more money. Is that what we're seeing in the AI world?
Certainly what you were seeing for a few months right, Like the tech world has gone through several hype cycles. Lately, they've been trying to figure out what the next big thing is going to be. Of course, if you remember a few years ago, everybody was talking about the metaverse, this sort of virtual world that we would all exist in, something that Facebook and Instagram really put a lot of effort into, and the sort of long tail of that
didn't really go anywhere. Crypto was sort of the next big hype cycle that people got excited about, and obviously that market crashed as well. Well, now everybody's talking about artificial intelligence, so it's not enough to just be a computer engineer. You kind of got to specialize in one thing, and you've got to make a bet that your specific
specialization is going to be the thing that hits. Certainly, with these investments that we've been talking about from Apple and from open ai and from others, it certainly seems like a lot of the tech industry is sort of centering itself around this artificial intelligence revolution. But we've also seen some reasons to be skeptical about the long you know,
the sort of ongoing success of this particular industry. The emergence of deep Seek, the Chinese artificial intelligence company that was able to develop this very competitive model for a fraction of the cost of what American models were able to offer. Really did kind of raise some eyebrows in the investing class. I think a big indicator bill is
going to be tomorrow when Nvidia reports its earnings. They are the chip manufacturer that makes the technology that underpins a lot of these models used by open Ai and Google and others.
Now, my daughter showed me by my tech daughter showed me a picture of the first quantum chip that came out, and I didn't really understand that, And I want to know how how much can this pop be cost? Do you have any information on that?
Well, quantum computing has been around for a little while as this sort of idea that the you know, that our computers will somehow change and work differently on the back end. This is mostly an internal you know question, right, we're talking about chips and we're talking about processors. From a user perspective, you know, it's sort of questionable exactly what the change will be. But you're right to say that. Recently, Microsoft did show off what they call the first quantum
computing chip. In terms of cost, I'm not sure off the top of my head, but you can imagine it's going to be quite pricey, given that this is just a prototype, sort of experimental technology at this point. But yeah, that's something to keep an eye on in the background. This is something that we've been talking about for several years now. Not everyone has been able to get it to work just right, these sort of hyper efficient computers, but it is certainly something that Microsoft thinks that it's
gotten a little bit closer to. I think what's going to be really interesting to watch is whether that actually shows up in the real world, how they implement this in a technology that you or I could use.
Thank you, and I want to end with Alexa. What does the fire engine sound like?
And good morning to everyone in the immediate Los Angeles area?
Thanks Mike, always appreciated. Okay, who is Danbongino. Well, he has just been tapped by Cash Patel, the director of the FBI, to be second in command at the FBI. Does not need second does not need Senate confirmation. Now, him being in this slot is a radical departure from what used to be that role. The deputy director traditionally
an active agent significant operational experience and expertise. And by the way, Patel said that is who he is going to name as second in command that kind of person before his confirmation. Oops, maybe not. And as a matter of fact, what he did is he selected Bongino fifty years old former Secret Service agent turned conservative media commentator, known primarily for his outspoken support for Trump and frequent spreading of misinformation, including the FBI about the FBI, basically
conspiracy theorists. He started his career as a cop with the New York City Police Department. He joined the Secret Service in nineteen ninety nine as a special agent. He left in two thousand and two to become an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy. Pretty impressive. In two thousand and six he joined the Presidential Protective Division, serving both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. And then he
went into politics. First, he published a bunch of books, pretty successful ones, and in twenty twelve he ran for the US Senate Maryland. Won the Republican primary, lost by a landslide to the Democratic incumbent. So two years later he runs against a Democratic incumbent to represent Maryland's sixth congressional district. He narrowly lost that one, and then he decided he is going to go into a new career
in media. Boy did he succeed. He started a podcast in his basement audience reaching millions of people, and his popularity and his very brash style earned him a contract in twenty eighteen with an online video channel you have never heard of. It was the National Rifle Association's online video channel. The NRATV lasted about twelve and a half seconds. Now, one of the things about Bongino is over the years, Trump actually took notice frequently posting on social media. Trump
did about Bongino's comments. Did you see what Bongono Bongino said? He is so right. He's just so right about it at all. You have to see it. In twenty twenty one, as a result of all this success, he became a radio and podcast the host in on Cumulus to take over Rush Limbaugh slot, and then he started hosting Fox News weekend program. And I guess in order to be a Trump appointee, it's good to be a Fox commentator or host. Read Pete hegseith. He's a critic of vax
and mandates mandates. He's a critic of masking, which he called useless during the pandemic. He was permanently banned from YouTube, violating his policies against pandemic related misinformation. Google pulled its ad service from his website, and in the weeks after Biden's victory, he started going nuts that the election had been stolen. Now he has condemned the violence of January sixth, but called on and defended Trump's pardon of everybody involved
in the January sixth insurrection. He has suggested, this is the fun part. The FBI played and covered up a role in the pipe bombs that were placed outside the DNC and RNC headquarters in twenty twenty one. The FBI did it. He questioned the integrity of the agency's investigations into the assassination attempts on Trump in twenty twenty four. The FBI is not investigating this. He has repeated, it's time to clean house at the FBI. Here's a quote that is attributed to him. My entire life right now
is about owning the Libs. It's a new world. Just get prepared. James Carvel wrote a really interesting piece in the New York Times that are read this morning, and he said the best thing the Democrats can do right now is just leave everything alone, just walk away that it just don't show up and watch the Republicans self emulate, just go up in flames, which seems to be happening because what did Trump went on inflation hasn't done a damn thing about inflation except that it's increasing, and he
said it's gonna hurt, after promising it's not gonna hurt. He spent a lot of time dealing with DEI and the border. But you know, people care about economics. They want jobs, and the terrorists are not going to help now long long term they're going to and I think that's going to happen, but way beyond what the next election is going to be about. And if I had to guess, it's going to be another Saturday night massacre
in the midterms. All Right, We finish the show with a fun topic, a success from No Scratching, and this is a company called Dude Wipes, and the idea for dude wipes actually toilet wipes for men. It came from a bunch of buddies simply sitting down in an apartment together and they're drinking beer, and up came this idea. And if you look at the company on their website,
it's the posts are laced with poop emojis. If you go to their headquarters in Chicago, at one end of the conference table, there is a toilet bowl and Sean Riley, who co founded the company, said, we were thinking about this while drinking beers and we wanted to make people laugh and be authentic because what they did is they are marketing people. I mean, the idea wipes have been around for a while, so a new company about wipes.
Boy did they hit it. They've sold millions of wipes by convincing men to add wet tissues to their bathroom regimen. And this is a small irreverent was a small irreverent outlandis approach to marketing, I mean, still is the marketing part.
They first gained prominence as a quote ass sponsor for UFC fighter Tyrone Woodley, who reached out to the company because he advertises he sells space on his ass during fights on his shorts, and the sponsor that was buying it dropped out, So he goes to Dude Wipes and they immediately go for it. They scraped together ten thousand dollars. That was in twenty fourteen, and sales just spiked after the fight, and so they discovered this was all about marketing.
So what they do well, For example, they pay the fine for an athlete who wiped this bottom with a football. I don't even know how you do that. They talk a lot about bodily functions, lots of poop emojis. Eighty percent of toilet papers bought by women by women, dude wipes seventy percent by men. If you look at the wipes marketing that's done by Kimberly, Clark, Procter and Gamble, it's you know, there's rubber ducks on it. There's the Sharman bear. It's kind of cutesy. Not with them. Ridley says,
people don't want to be coddled. We know that it is a sticky new habit, sticky being. People continue to use it because it's cleaner, it's a better alternative. Retailer said, no, not a chance. So they go on Shark Tank, Mark Cuban invests. Dude Wipe makes its first million selling on Amazon. Sales go to forty million during the toilet paper shortage of the pandemic. Analyst said it was just a fad. Sales are now two hundred million. Dollars, Walmart, target Kroger.
The best selling products extra large wipes, because it's for dudes. See how that work. Now, they've tried a couple of other things that didn't work. Dude products launch. The line of deodorants and other personal care products during the pandemic flopped. Why well, because if you look at the personal care products like old spice and as it's already targeted towards men, wipes are targeted towards women. They figured out we're going
to go for the guys. And by the way, they're trying to get into Costco and I'll bet you they they make it. And there is another product launching soon, dude wipes. Double deucee. That's what they're calling. What means two wipes that come in a single package. That idea came from the singer John Mayer, who went in and contacted them and said, we live in a two wipe world, we should have some double deuce Well, they came up with the name wipes. Wow, have you ever tried them?
No?
I haven't. I don't use the wipe I you know, I use regular wipes. Man.
Well, I'm not saying the cottonells great as well, I'm just keep them in the car.
Why keep him in the car when you got you know, deuce in the car. Is that what you do? But they're good for wipes, they're good for hand wipes. They're good for cleaning messes up too. But they're there, durable there, they are durable wipes, the double deuce. Okay, we're done, guys, Fresh fresh, I know coming up Harry and Chen and ten o'clock they're going to talk about the fires that are affecting preparations for the twenty twenty eight Olympics, and
we start all over again tomorrow morning. Amy wake up call and Neil and I come aboard at six, six to nine, right now till right now, and of course Ann and Kono here to make the show run. This is KFI AM six point forty. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.