John, what was our role in all of that infrastructure and communication?

From an operational perspective, our role was to work with FIFA, to work with each of the host regions, their law enforcement organizations, their fusion centers, to work with private sector corporations to include the broadcaster of the games so that they all, so we could help and enhance their ability to understand the threat environment and receive both strategic and real-time intelligence analysis regarding physical threats, cyber threats, criminal activity, and in efforts to disrupt the games, whether through an information operation, drones or bomb threats or even swatting calls.

So we were, from my perspective, a force multiplier and a partner, and we're fortunate to work with all parts of the game.

And if I can just give Ryan a little credit and yes, I'll I'll disclose that I've known Ryan for years.

He is a true professional and extraordinarily well-versed in the challenges of dealing with

the

context of things that they observe in and around an event or in the lead up to an event.

Sometimes it materializes, sometimes it doesn't.

Here's what Talkspace CEO, John Cohen, told me when I asked him how they thought about sycophancy when creating T.

The model is specifically built to identify that and address that.

This is built with a huge amount of clinical oversight.

It's trained by clinicians purposely to keep the conversation where we want it to be and not go down the routes that you're talking about.

But what happens if someone starts to use these tools when they're in a crisis, like if they're thinking about suicide? Here's how John Cohen says Talkspace's tool, T, handles that.

We have five large risk algorithms that are built into the model.

A risk algorithm means that based on the conversation, we can determine whether the person who's talking is at suicide risk, homicide risk, substance use risk, possibility of being abused at home, and then five other clinical entities, including OCD, hallucinations, et cetera.

So in your M&A practice, are you specialized in a particular niche of a company?

Not really.

I mean, I think, generally speaking, it's in the tech world, right? Because that's sort of the legacy of GASMAR up to now is we deal with a lot of the vast majority of our clients are tech clients.

However, having said that, I'm pretty industry, we are pretty industry agnostic.

I've done everything from home appliance to retail, to brick and mortar, to software, to med tech, hardware, software, you name it.

We don't turn away whatever industry is coming to us.

One we probably don't really have a lot of expertise in that is very nuanced and can be very esoteric is biopharma.

Right.

'Cause you know, a casual fan probably doesn't know.

No, yeah.

So I, I work with a coach up in Wisconsin.

His name is Kyle Stelter.

I build a plan through him, and then I, uh, implement that here, whether it's after practice, like I'll come in at like 6:00, 7:00 PM.

All the maintenance guys know me 'cause I gotta get the lights on and, uh, it's just fun.

It's like you're doing your own specialized thing that people don't understand, but they respect because of what you've done on the field.

So like what does it feel like if you get after you first test yourself?

You

can control the improvement of that team.

You can control effort.

what you can't control is all those factors from the people you're competing against.

So you don't, when you start looking at records, what you're saying is I am an expert on everybody we're competing against and you're not, nobody is, especially in an age where everybody's roster is turning over at a pretty high rate in this era.

So I believe that, we're going to get the most out of this football team.

I really believe that.

World Cup friendlies or whatever's out there?

You know, from a national security perspective, how much does it concern you that OpenAI's model broke free of human control and decided on its own to do something not only unethical and unlawful, but, you know, steal credentials and hack another company?

Yeah, I mean, obviously, uh, in, in the words of a computer scientist I spoke with today who specializes in AI, this isn't good, and obviously there's a problem with the guardrails that were employed.

You know, a- as mentioned in the reporting, this, uh, AI model did not o- did not follow human commands.

It was able to exploit a software flaw it located, uh, and gain access to the internet.

Uh, and then it engaged in a actual cyber attack.

So this will need to be reviewed very carefully by the company, uh, and by others.

But this isn't the only issue that c- is causing concerns amongst law enforcement and intelligence officials as it relates to AI's use by threat actors.

Are leaks like this common?

Yeah

...

Kanaskat- the Kanaskat Tournament, the, the card shows, the, the concerts, I, I, I, I think it's all terrific for the city of Auburn.

I think it's great for our campus.

Uh, and I think it's, it's a great opportunity for third-party NIL for our student athletes.

Um, but at some point, um, I, I think the adults have to step forward, and we have to find a solution to this, because it can't be done forever.

I'm not gonna use the unsustainable word, um, but what I am gonna say is there needs to come a point to where those who aren't having to put on the bake sales-

Yeah.

He told me last month that he was absolutely certain that El-Sayed was too extreme for the Michigan electorate, and he pointed to El-Sayed's relationship with leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker as proof.

Very unclear that, as a practical matter, Piker gets you much of anything except driving away people who matter to building a, a big Democratic tent.

Okay

...

if that happens.

Sayed's not gonna win in Michigan, and by the way, his asso- close association with Piker, uh, I don't think he's gonna win the primary.

If he did, he'd get crushed in the general.

And the association with Piker, I, I'll put money down on this.

As you said, you know, three Super Bowls a day, you know, a-across this, uh, tournament leading up to, you know, the final game, uh, in a couple weeks here.

So Sean, I, I have to say, I think you both have done a great job describing it, but you've understated the challenge to some degree.

I mean, think about it.

It's, it's, it's an event of m-magnitude that I haven't seen in the 42 years that I've been working in law enforcement and homeland security.

Three countries, you know, uh, local regions.

It's not just one jurisdiction.

It's not just one venue in those regions.

This is such a wide topic, uh, so I just have to narrow my answer and give you the intelligence answer on this one.

As you said, you know, three Super Bowls a day, you know, a-across this, uh, tournament leading up to, you know, the final game, uh, in a couple weeks here.

So Sean, I, I, I have to say, I think you both have done a great job describing it, but you've understated the challenge to some degree.

I mean, think about it.

It's, it's, it's an event of m-magnitude that I haven't seen in the 42 years that I've been working in law enforcement and homeland security.

Three countries, you know, uh, local regions.

It's not just one jurisdiction.

It's not just one venue in those regions.

This is such a wide topic, uh, so I just have to narrow my answer and give you the intelligence answer on this one.

I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude.

Over the last several weeks, I'm told that at the direction of the White House, ICE has been expanding their neighborhood enforcement efforts, meaning they're targeting both criminal and non-criminal, uh, migrants, uh, who may be subject to removal operations, and they're targeting them in neighborhoods.

And instead of contacting that person in a, you know, while they're walking down the street or while they're in a office or a residence, um, they're waiting for these people to go mobile, and then they are trying to stop the vehicles that they're in.

We've seen several highly public, um, lethal encounters, one in Houston and one in Maine, just, you know, in the course of several days.

We've also seen videotapes of traffic stops in Pennsylvania and other places.

So it appears at least, anecdotally at least, that we are seeing an increase, not only in these stops, but also in stops that are resulting in injuries or deaths.

Yeah.

But part of the problem here, and I think this is a big part of the story, and let's put, you know, the politics of immigration enforcement aside, right? I mean, that's a, that's an important debate.

Quite the name, but what is YouGov with their CEO, Stephen Shakespeare, and why are they so interesting?

Yeah, so...

Just interrupt me.

I love this.

No, go, go, go.

So I'll go on a bit of a tangent.

But basically, in terms of talking about the business, so I would say YouGov probably screens at first as kind of a market research firm at first glance.

So why isn't this, I hear you on AI could improve this, but why doesn't this also create a lot of competitors that can say, hey, we can go create a lot of people for them?

What made you all publish this now?

We published this, uh, for a specific reason and a broad reason.

The broad reason is that if Democrats are going to not just beat Trump and Trumpism, but MAGA long run, we need to be able to build majorities in lots of red and purple places, and right now, the Democratic Party is perceived as more extreme than mainstream in many places, and a majority of Democratic voters want the party to move towards the center.

So if the party aligns with folks who are this extreme and cozies up to them, it's going to make it much harder, not easier, for Democrats to not just flip the House and get the White House back, but beat Vance and MAGA and Rubio and the rest of them long run.

The specific impetus-

Yeah.

Zero.

Okay, well that tells you where voters are at.

What's the risks? Is it the idea that it could cause more harm than good, or people will take it and think they're safe and go out there?

Yeah, so there's solid evidence that the vaccine that is licensed for Ebola is against a species called Zaire.

It's safe, and it's extremely effective.

So there's not a lot of risk of that vaccine harming people.

There's another species called Sudan that there are experimental vaccines made with the same technology, not a lot of risk that the vaccine is going to harm people.

There are risks that people will become very disappointed if they don't work, and maybe they will turn against the Zaire vaccine, which does work when there's a Zaire species circulating.

But the risk isn't really high of the vaccines harming people.

What can you tell us?

Mm-hmm.

Um, a political system, a religious belief system, or a ideologically extreme belief system like white supremacy.

Nihilistic terrorism is just the opposite.

Nihilistic terrorists are motivated by an extreme hatred of humanity generally.

They believe philosophically that life is devoid of value, and that the only way that they can address this feeling of emptiness, hopelessness, and sense of hatred is by committing suicide by mass murder.

I can confirm there has been a manifesto that's been recovered.

So while on the one hand we have at least one of these suspects that was, appears to have been driven by a white supremacist belief system, both these individuals also immersed themselves in the online subcultures associated with the true crime community or nihilistic terrorism, which basically is an online ecosystem that h- has made heroes out of past mass shooters-

So, what has been happening with these swatting calls?

So over the last week, what we've seen is a, uh, a significant number of universities across the country, uh, who were targeted.

And we came to believe that the, the group involved in this, um, were involved in most of these, uh, these swatting incidents.

And we believe that because they were using the same online, uh, commercial technology that's available, uh, through one of the internet service providers.

All the calls had simulated gunfire in the background.

Uh, and the language used in the calls focused on a shooting in the school library.

So based on the tactics that were used during these calls, uh, and some other information that the team was able to glean from online activity, uh, they concluded that the same group was responsible for the majority of these swatting calls.

Mm-hmm.