Show Notes
Six months ago, Andrew Yeung came on Mostly Human and built Laurie Segall a website live on the show, just by talking to a computer. He's back as the show's first returning guest, because in six months (a lifetime in AI!) the tech stack Andrew uses has several upgrades. Andrew is an entrepreneur, investor, startup advisor and the founder of Fibe, and he is a voracious experimenter of the latest tools and gadgets available to the layperson to hack productivity (and relationships!). He's abandoned the check-in app he vibe-coded for his girlfriend last time (his update: "Now we just talk like regular people"), but he's built two new personal projects — one that surfaces a single buried text message from the last seven years, every day, and one that asks his parents a question a day for 100 days and turns their voice answers into a book. He's learned fifty stories he never knew, and his dad now wakes up excited to answer. Then Laurie asks her producer Derrick for a business idea and Andrew sets an AI agent loose on it, hands-free, while the conversation keeps going. Twenty-two minutes later there's a real website, with animations and creative interactive features that weren’t even part of Andrew’s prompt. Laurie and Andrew also dig into a new etiquette emerging: what Silicon Valley reads as "high signal" and "low signal" AI use, and why VCs are calling people “slop cannons.” Then Andrew opens the box of listening devices companies keep mailing him, and Laurie wonders who is collecting all that voice data, what will they do with it. If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from Mostly Human with Laurie Segall
If you don’t have your own newsletter (what are you even doing?!), your inbox is probably packed with them. In a world of bifurcated media, billionaire journalism moguls, and misinformed doomscrolling, the humble email newsletter has become the information-delivery tool dejour. But can a newsletter do more for media, the internet, our sanity? Tyler Denk sure thinks so. The cofounder and CEO of Beehiiv, the newsletter platform he hopes will rival Substack, is building outloud, using his own newsletter to share the highs and lows of that #entrepreneurlife, the mental health tax, and what it means to share content - to share yourself - on the internet. In this conversation, host Laurie Segall and Tyler Denk talk about the rise of newsletter culture, building a community of strangers, the information ecosystem, and how to bet on yourself when no one else will. Find out more about Beehiiv. If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at [email protected]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
One in six job applicants is fake. Their resume, their identity, even their face for zoom interviews are all made up. What does this mean for job seekers? What does this mean for employers? And what does this mean for national security? "Your HR recruiter is the front of your security perimeter," says Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder and CEO of Pindrop Security. In this episode, Laurie Segall talks to Vijay about the AI deepfake infiltrating the workplace, how their technology detects these bad actors, the AI-amplified deterioration of truth more broadly, and how we - any of us - can help turn things around. Find out more about Pindrop. If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at [email protected]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Dating Apps overwhelming serve young people — A generation who has grown up on the internet, whose very lives are dictated by tech, whose still navigating a post-pandemic period of isolation, and whose mere desire for a relationship is ‘cringe.’ How do you meet this audience where they are? For Hinge CEO Jackie Jantos, the answer comes down to empathy and understanding this cultural moment. In this conversation, Laurie Segall and Jackie Jantos talk about what AI can and cannot do when it comes to pairing two humans, how the app incorporates inclusion, and how to productize intimacy. Jackie also answers your questions about profiles, swipe-fatigue, and dating after divorce. Find out more about the Hinge event, Heads Up, and Jackie’s reflections on our ‘closeness crisis.’ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
There is a lot of doom and gloom with AI, particularly with how it could affect that uniquely human output - creativity. AI has already infiltrated the art world, but Alex Reben believes it’s for the good if we don’t relinquish our control. The artist, roboticist, and co-founder and CTO of Phyzify is building an entire company around the belief that machines can democratize creation and help bring more ideas into the physical world. In this conversation, host Laurie Segall and Alex dig deep into those big questions about what is — and isn’t — art in the AI age and mull over the choices we can make to both protect the creativity that makes us human while using tech to advance it. Alex argues we have the opportunity now to have agency in this marriage of art, creativity and AI, but we might not for long. Where will humans sit within the future that is coming fast? And at the end of the conversation, Alex demonstrates how he uses AI to make art — and magic — right before Laurie’s eyes. Learn more about Phyzify. Read Alex Reben’s manifesto. If you have thoughts or questions for Laurie about this episode or anything Mostly Human, email us at [email protected] See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
YouTube has gotten huge. Not just because it's been number one in streaming for the past three years, but because it's on the big screen, in our living rooms, and consuming most of America's attention. How much bigger can YouTube get and what does it mean for the entertainment industry, for media, and how we get information? On this bonus episode, Laurie interviews YouTube leaders Amjad Hanif (VP creator products) and Kurt Wilms (Sr Director, Product, YouTube on TV) about the evolution of the site and how we consume content. They talk about the new products launched during their annual Made On event, including serialized shorts. Laurie also explores the future of identity online and asks the execs, in an AI world how we retain the most human parts of ourselves? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.