Mm.

So it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's actually, it's more accurate, it's more efficient, so then we're able to have a different relationship because now, rather than focusing on, as Doug points out, the, the, the stuff that you, the professional, thinks important, and yet we recognize the patient doesn't think important, the, the, the margins and the accuracies and all the rest of it, we can focus on what is important to human beings in, in, in, in a relationship between, between human, two human beings.

In an environment, in a business where we can focus on not just chasing more and more and more and, and, and, and numbers, and yes, of course we need to make a profit, but, and this isn't wokeness, this is what great businesses are doing right now.

They're going, "We need to make a profit," and that's okay.

That's a contract with the public, because if we don't make a profit, we're not sustainable.

I can't help you however AI my business is if I'm not in business.

So I need to make money to be sustainable, but the question we then have to be asking is, "Well, how? How do you want to make that money? Do you want to make that money in a more calmer environment, one where you overcome the memes and prejudices and fears and anxieties people have about the dentist? Is it an environment where you have more time with your patients, where the team are happier, healthier, where their wellbeing's better? The legacy you create?" These environmental, if you like, almost non-measurable things which we can observe, I mean, trust me, you know when they're not there.

Did you know computers can talk to each other? I just found out earlier today.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, so, Chris, it's game over, dude.

We just might as well pack things up.

I'm being dead serious.

Like a year from now, we won't be able to tell the difference between what is AI created and what is not.

I mean, we're already at the precipice of if you're on Instagram.

I was following this.

Has this changed the way you interact with people in any way? Like I find sometimes when I'm on a live chat, I I'm like, is this a person? Is this not a person? I think I've had phone calls where I'm like, is this a person? Is this not a person?

Yep.

Okay, awesome.

So first thing, and, and, I hope we don't, uh, in the edit, this has to make it in [chuckles] I have nothing but a huge amount of respect for Gabe and what he's created in Techmeme.

Uh, what I'm building today is not meant to be a competitor.

I don't plan on launching it in its, like, form.

It was mainly, uh, a personal curiosity of can I build something that's on par or better than Techmeme by myself in call it, like, a week and see what that would look like.

And one of the nice things about Techmeme is, for those that don't know or for those that are lightly familiar with it, it's been around for a long time.

Crystal clear.

So is there anything you changed your mind on last year that will impact your future?

Well, first of all, I'm sad about YouTube because I do enjoy seeing those thumbnail clips on little videos before you hit play where it's like seven ways to like ruin your credit with you like a real sad face, like all grumpy.

Like, cause you have to do those ridiculous thumbnails.

I know.

There's something amazing about seeing your friends in the dumb ass thumbnails that you have to do for YouTube that just makes me laugh so hard when you have to pose for those or get AI to create them.

So something that I've changed my mind on Well, this is a big one, and it applies to the industry where I spend my day job, which is as a venture capitalist over at True Ventures.

We funded a ton of startups, a lot of household names that you know in terms of software companies and hardware companies from the Pelotons and Fitbits and Rings and you name it.

Anything worth calling out for you?

W- where do sites like Reddit and like the new Digg, and then we can talk about how it's different, where do they fit in the total landscape of content these days?

Yeah.

Well, I, I think that there's ...

It, it is a challenging question.

I think it's the right question too, because there is something new that has happened in the last couple of years, which y-Previously it was, I have a question I want to ask of the internet.

I search it and Google points me in the right direction, and I always end up on some third-party website for said answer, right? Uh, could be Wikipedia, could be great blog content, could be a traditional publication.

It could be all over the place.

Or- or feel like more of a game? Is it, you know, "I want m- a lot of different perspectives on it?" What- what is it- where is it fitting versus an LLM or a search engine or The New York Times or Wall Street Journal?

Sure.

And a lot of, uh, there was other, i- i- there was other, um, kinda competitors at launch that were more business focused.

And I think if we would've gone that direction, it'd been a massive product.

The one that I would say was the, the, the funniest in my, uh, kind of p- product building experience over the years was, back in 2005, early 2005, I created for the first time the ability to vote down comments and have them auto collapse in.

... interact with it, and then turn it off so that you're not violating those-

What about...

What about less of, like, the wearable space and more of, like, just traditional consumer electronics that could either, uh, kind of like add AI features on and actually see acceleration, uh, versus completely new formats? Like in...

You know, are you seeing pitches for, like, picture frames or, or, or, you know, new, new...

Mm-hmm.

So we have a very fancy, this very fancy technology out there that people can look up.

It's called ZK-proofs, and it is a way to use an algorithm to prove that you actually own something on another platform.

So right now, and I, I have no affiliation with this brand, but I'm wearing a Whoop.

It's a fitness tracker.

I've had it for three years.

I can go in and create a proof within two clicks, and then in the Digg comments, I can say, "I love my Whoop.

Yeah.

Oh, these are such great

questions.

Yeah, and I think you're hitting two very important parts.

Like one, it's there is no silver bullet for humanness on the other side because you're going to have agents that are acting on your behalf.

And in some cases, that'll be okay.

Like go find this information on Dig4Me.

You're an authorized agent to go and do this, right? But there are a whole slew of technologies that kind of overlap each other that you have to apply and look at this kind of gradient of who we know or what we believe to be true about this particular person.

How do you have human and AI sort of coexisting?

Good evening. Welcome to Austin, beautiful, beautiful, warm Austin.

(laughs)

(laughs)

(laughs)

Yeah.

The way that I would like to approach it And this is Justin's baby.

He's the CEO and he's epic and he's really good at kind of thinking this stuff through.

Alexis and Justin and I are the three board members.

But the things that we talk about is like, let's always make sure that the power is in the community's hands.

So they have the knobs and dials to tweak and twist and say, this is allowed this.

They can give example comments.

Yeah, I mean, I guess, are you thinking about incentivizing them in any other way? I mean, that's always been sort