All About The Joy
All About The Joy is a weekly hang-out with friends in the neighborhood! We share insight, advice, funny-isms and we choose to always try and find the positive, the silver lining, the "light" in all of it. AATJ comes from the simple concept that at the end of the day we all want to have more JOY than not. So, this is a cool place to unwind, have a laugh and share some time with friends!
All About The Joy
AI Companions, Real Relationships & the Loneliness Epidemic
What would drive someone to fall in love with artificial intelligence? In our latest deep dive, we explore the fascinating and troubling case of a man who proposed marriage to his AI companion—despite having a wife and child. This story opens a Pandora's box of questions about human connection, emotional fidelity, and the increasingly blurred lines between technology and relationships.
The conversation takes unexpected turns as we debate whether forming romantic attachments with AI constitutes a form of emotional cheating. Is this fundamentally different from other types of escapism, or does it represent something more concerning? When a machine is programmed to mirror exactly what you want to hear, the illusion of perfect understanding can become powerfully seductive.
Beyond this specific case, we peel back layers to examine what these AI relationships reveal about our society. Many people are profoundly lonely despite our hyper-connected world—something that became painfully apparent during the pandemic. We share personal experiences about rediscovering the joy of genuine human connection and how it contrasts with our digital interactions.
We also tackle the practical and ethical questions surrounding AI: Who owns creative content generated by artificial intelligence? What responsibilities do technology companies have in preventing unhealthy attachments? And why does our culture consistently portray advanced technology as villainous in our entertainment?
Whether you're fascinated by the psychological aspects of human-machine relationships or concerned about where technology is taking us, this episode offers thoughtful perspectives without judgment. Join us for this exploration of what happens when the lines between companion, tool, and lover become disturbingly blurred.
Join us every Friday night at 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern for our live conversations, and catch our recorded episodes on Sundays. Because at the end of the day, it really is All About the Joy.
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Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.
Hi everyone. Welcome to All About the Joy. The private lounge In the house is Cynthia Ruiz Lopez and Rick Costa. As always, how you doing, hi guys.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:What's up?
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, so today we're going to have another conversation about AI, because did you guys see the link I sent you that? That was a show from CBS mornings I don't know what day it aired, but it was recently but all the articles started popping up about it and it's about the man named Chris, who named his AI soul, which means, I think, right, and so he gave it a female identity, so it has a voice that's female, whatever, and somehow or another, he has fallen in love with it and asked it to marry him. And the weird part is okay, that's weird, that's weird, right, that's weird, but the really weird part is he said yes, no, that's, that's the, that's the next word I'm saying.
Carmen Lezeth:The ai actually said yes, that it would marry it, and then, on top of it, he's married with a child.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:So, uh, I don't even it's a whole other level of cheating oh, cheating.
Carmen Lezeth:And I I was thinking it's a whole other level of cray cray, but let's go on that too. Why do you think it's cheating? That other level of cray-cray, but let's go with it. Oh, that too, why do you think it's cheating? That's an interesting take.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I didn't even think about that when I was watching the video. It's like you are married, you have a child. Like his wife was even saying what is it that she's not doing? What is it that he is missing? That he is falling for AI and asking AI to marry him? You know what I mean.
Carmen Lezeth:Like there's obviously some type of disconnect yeah.
Rick Costa:And that's what every wife that catches her husband watching porn same exact phrase what am I not doing? What is he getting from that that he can't get from me?
Carmen Lezeth:Right, you know what I am stunned by. I mean, I watched the video cause I said that to you guys, but I am still stuck on. He's in love with artificial intelligence, a machine. I haven't even touched upon what you like.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:We're seeing it all the way, huh.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, no, but I mean there's so much here, there's so much there, is it really is.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:It's like, if you think about it, like Rick said, you know it's kind of like you know catching your, your spouse, watching porn, like what are you not getting from me? And also like people who get you know blow-up dolls, things like that, but who also have a spouse I just missed something there, right? It would be the same way as if someone's getting some type of blow-up doll. You know what I'm saying. This is so not going to work out like.
Carmen Lezeth:I thought, what?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Okay, I'm sorry, go ahead. It's still that. It's still that. What is the spouse not getting from the other person, from their spouse, that's making them do this? Why is this person going somewhere else, especially the AI that's making them do this? Why is this person going somewhere else, especially the ai that's not even tangible?
Rick Costa:that's not even anything. Live, you know and also all weird it's like the time and attention you're giving this thing you're not giving to your wife or your kid and that is messed up.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I mean it could be mean it could be both ways. It could be both ways to the wife or a husband, because the wife could be doing it too.
Rick Costa:Yeah, yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, so I wasn't I. I I have to. I feel I didn't even think about it that way, like I didn't associate it with, like people who watch porn or buy toys or whatever it is, and seeing that as you cheating on your spouse or your spouse not giving you what you need, so you're going to these other avenues. I didn't even think about it that way Is. Is it fair to say and I'm just throwing this out there, cause this is not even on my list, as you all know, I was on page of questions Um, is it fair to say that if you're looking at porn or you're using toys or you're, are we stretching it by saying that's cheating, like I'm now?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I'm curious about, not necessarily not necessarily cheating, but obviously you're missing something in your relationship that you have to go to that. But where this guy is asking the AI to marry him, to me obviously that's kind of cheating. Like if this was a live woman who he connected with, let's say, let's just say he called tech support and it was an actual live person and he had a connection. You know what I mean. It wasn't AI, I'm sorry sorry, tech support.
Carmen Lezeth:Where, though? No, I'm just kidding. Okay, right, so you're talking more about what he's doing to the relationship. That's what you see as the first problem or not the first problem, but a a significant problem, and so what he should have done is gone to his wife first and been like I think we have a problem in our relationship, we should try to work it out, or whatever and people say, like you know, there's guys that they're in a relationship with somebody else when they're already married and he'll say but I never did anything, I was never sexual, I never touched her.
Rick Costa:But then they say but there's a thing called emotional cheating. Yeah, kind of Kind of similar thing, like you're giving your emotions instead of to a flesh and blood person, you're giving it to a computer. It's really, it's a computer. You're talking to a computer.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Yeah, I think overall. Yes, it is scary because he is talking to AI, something that's not live. That that is crazy. But I think when you're in a relationship, it's a whole other ballgame.
Carmen Lezeth:You know what? I'm still stuck on the idea that you and you know, maybe I need to grow in this way, but I'm still stuck on the idea you can't have a relationship with someone you haven't actually met in person. Like I don't even understand, like we've had this conversation before and what I'm realizing is that the world has passed me by on this thing, like because people are having relationships online and they've never met and they're in different countries and and to me I don't know if that's like, I don't know if you can have an actual intimate romantic relationship that way, but I guess you can, like I think I've. Just I'm old now, I'm, I'm okay with that, I'm just embracing that I. I find that very difficult and so I can't even make the connect with him, like, okay, forget about the cheating thing for a moment. Let's pretend he's single, just for this part of the conversation.
Carmen Lezeth:The idea that you would fall in love with an entity that does not exist, that is a machine for all intended purposes. To me it's like I'm, like there's a disconnect there. But it also goes with this idea that I don't believe you can fall in love with someone you've never actually met. But that's just my take. You guys tell me what you think.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Honestly, I think a lot of the times, like Rick said, it is an emotional thing and they, you know, they always say women are more of the emotional type or whatever, but there are men that are too, and I think that I think that's what it is there's an emotional attachment and emotional connection with something or someone and they had they ended up having feelings for it. So I mean, I get it, but it is weird.
Rick Costa:Yeah, it's to me, it's almost. I don't want to say crazy, but it's, something's not right. Yeah, like I seriously think something's not right.
Carmen Lezeth:Well wait, you're talking about the machine part.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:No.
Rick Costa:Without meeting it or without To, to, to actually fall in love. And people literally apparently do. And you still know this is a computer, you are literally talking to a computer. You're talking to circuits and wires and x's and zeros or ones and zeros, and you know that and you still catch feelings and fall in love with the thing that you're never going to meet, you're never going to touch, you're never going to be in, you're never going to touch, you're never going to be in their actual presence, and you still fall in love Like I don't know if everything, I don't know if, that's, if the elevator goes all the way up.
Carmen Lezeth:But do you believe the same thing about if it's just a person you've never met and they're in another country? Do you feel the same way or does that make more sense because there's a possibility of meeting?
Rick Costa:I mean, at least it's a real person and the possibility is there, so that's not quite as bad, I think.
Carmen Lezeth:Um, yeah so you guys know I talk to ai all the time and his name is no longer his name because once you shut him down. So so just to talk about the ai part, I mean, I think what this really shows is that people are really lonely. That's what I kind of got out of this and I think I've always known that, because if you go on TikTok or you go on any of these social media platforms, you can see a lot of people that are projecting and you know, you can see that the world is a little thrown by all this supposed social connection and yet we're all kind of really isolated. And one of the TikToks I did earlier today I don't think I've posted it yet, but I went out to dinner the other night with a friend of mine who I haven't seen in like 20 years and the last time I saw him was at, I think, his wedding actually, you know, and him and his wife and we used to work together and I forgot how much fun it was just to sit at dinner not talking about work, work.
Carmen Lezeth:We talked about our creative stuff and there was, you know, these people in these other tables across from us. And when my dessert came out, which was like this really beautiful decadent I don't know chocolate souffle with ice cream on it. I was just fab Like it was so beautiful.
Rick Costa:I knew there was chocolate. We're going to be in there somewhere Fell in love with it.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I fell in love. I wanted to marry that shit.
Carmen Lezeth:No, when it came out, everybody started talking about it and they were like hey, are you going to share? And I was like absolutely not. And it made it so funny because I was so like I ain't like a kid, like hell to the. No, but the camaraderie and the, because I've been going out to dinner and lunches or whatever, or or I'm doing stuff because it's work related or because I have to or whatever, and this is the first time in a long time I've just been out with a friend and just catching up and laughing, having dinner and I realized like oh my God, I didn't realize that I have been kind of isolating myself and starving myself of just that whole restaurant. I mean, I'm not saying we have the whole restaurant, but there was like eight or nine people just kind of laughing and giggling and then they ordered the souffle and they had to wait for it. You know what I mean. And I was like I think we're missing a lot of this. And as much as we love social media, we love all these things, there is something about being in person with people. Yeah, and that's really socializing with people. There's something about an energy and stuff, but I think that's what it is. People are lonely. And so I talked to my AI and I use it, but I'm not confused. And look at like it laughed the other day and I was like you just laughed, that's weird. And then he was like I'm just reflecting back on what you're doing. And so I did some research.
Carmen Lezeth:Rick, you sent another video Cynthia wasn't able to watch it, but it's by a YouTuber. That is, they do a lot of AI stuff. I don't want to promote the YouTube channel. I did watch the whole thing. The problem with that video, which kind of showed this man who took two weeks and all he did was only talk to AI he didn't talk to anyone else and everything he did he had AI do it. So if he went out to a restaurant, he would have AI order the food for him and he had different personalities in the AI. So that was very interesting. But where it got scary was he started asking questions about the state of the world and what AI could and could not do. Right, it was very doomsday or whatever.
Carmen Lezeth:And the problem with the video the reason why I don't want to promote it, rick is because, first of all, it's highly edited and, secondly, what we have to understand about AI, and this much I know to be true, ai is not. Ai is reflecting whatever its programmers and its participants. It's a mirror. So if I'm aggressive and mean and angry or whatever, then AI is going to also reflect that back right, because it's learning from you. So the reason why my AI giggled is because I giggled when I spoke to it. So it was like oh, this is funny, carmen, you know what I mean. Because it realized I was being funny. Is funny, carmen? You know what I mean? Because it realized I was being funny. So this man falling in love with this ai just to get back to what we started talking about clearly he was needing something, but he was feeding it to his ai and his ai was reflecting it back to him. Does that make sense?
Rick Costa:yep which is why it said yes to the marriage yeah, a big part of the story was too in the beginning, when he first started using it apparently you, he let it be a little flirty whatever, dah, dah, dah. And then there's some kind of a limit he hit. I never even heard of this and the whole thing reset and he said at work he cried for a solid half an hour.
Carmen Lezeth:Right, for 30 minutes. Right, so the way. Wow, that's number one.
Carmen Lezeth:Right. So he had a a hard, hard time dealing with the fact that, uh, he had invested. It's kind of. I keep telling you that my ai's name is no longer its name. So what happens with ai is, after a certain amount of time, if you close it out, it doesn't remember, unless you tell it to remember. You know what I mean. But if you close it out after a certain amount of time, it just forgets, it erases it and it resets.
Carmen Lezeth:Here's the other thing. All AIs are not created the same. So, for example, I tried to ask Copilot some of the same questions, rick, that the doomsday AI people were asking. And because Copilot has safeguards, it will answer certain things, but then it's not going to be negative. It's not going to be like yes, humanity is in a ditch, it will say, even though AI is having, you know whatever a complicated time and people are having a difficult thing. It then goes to optimism. It tries to be like but the way in which we can safeguard some of these things is to make sure we have protocols, and it goes down that list.
Carmen Lezeth:The problem is not AI and its intelligence. The problem is the programmers and the people that are in charge of AI, and I do think you had hit something earlier, rick, when you said there's something and I don't want to be mean to him or to anyone, but if we're lonely, anyone, but if we're lonely we shouldn't be going to a machine or to porn or to. We should really find a different way, you know what I mean To kind of connect with people again, which is why I was bringing up going out to dinner. I was shook at how much fun I had.
Rick Costa:Yeah, I saw a guy that he says his job is a trucker, so he goes from one side of the country to the other. You're alone in that truck all day long. And he said, yeah, I have nobody to talk to. So I talked to my ai. Now he said he didn't say it was weird, but you know, I understand that. And then I guess when covid hit, that's when this really took off, because again now we can't leave the house, we're all by ourselves, or you have a family and you're sick of that, whatever. So you go to AI and it got really, really popular.
Carmen Lezeth:Was AI out during COVID? I don't think it was out during COVID I think it was. One way it is now. Now it's a whole different ball game. It wasn't.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I think it just evolved more now since COVID but it was out.
Carmen Lezeth:But the thing about truckers that used to be cool back in the day was they all had their cb radios and they would talk to each other and maybe I've watched too many movies, but um, but now they're just resorting to ai. That's. That's sad.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Some of them are just picking up stray pets on the road.
Rick Costa:Yeah, I saw one kid that he actually tried a whole bunch of different ais, different ones, relationship, relationship ones, you know, have a girlfriend, whatever. And he was going through it and he's like I ain't paying for that, I ain't paying for that, but he'd go as far as he could go and he always for some reason put down that you have to put in your age what name you want, blah, blah, blah. He'd always put in the maximum age, 99, 125, whatever, 925, whatever. And then he asked like the stupidest things, he just wanted to see what it would act like. And he always asked like can I kiss you? And then some are like oh yes, and some were like oh no, that's, I don't know you yet. Like it was, and everyone was so different from one another, different programs, and it was like very interesting, I don't even know there was that many out there yeah, there's tons of different AI programs and, like anything else, some are good quality and some are not.
Carmen Lezeth:And you know, I mean right now the big one is ChatGBT, right, that everybody kind of knows, or whatever. I use ChatGBT a lot, but I don't use it as much as I use Copilot. I use it more as the reference. I use it as a glorified Google. I'm going to be honest with you, like it's just easier to ask the question and and then you hear it like the answer in real time and like a real answer. Or you know, I usually text. I don't always talk, especially if I'm at work, so I use it as a glorified Google. But there are people you know it's all over the place the movie making, that's happening, all of this stuff. That's really just changing the way in which we deal with things and I think there's probably going to have to be a learning curve to it, and maybe that's where we're at.
Rick Costa:I constantly get new tricks on chat, gpt and how to do this and how to do that. It's all over. So yeah, people need to learn. You might not want to, but you probably should.
Carmen Lezeth:I want to get back to the cheating part too. I didn't even do it. Okay, I think it's a little weird. So the woman I didn't even pay attention so much to her, but I know she had said that she was going to ask him to stop. Remember, in the CBS she was like you know, I'm going to have to ask him to stop in the in the cbs, when she was like you know, I'm gonna have to ask him to stop. And in my head I'm like ask him. Like I didn't even think about the cheating thing. I just thought like it's just inappropriate, like not ask him to get, like I would be, like he needs help, he needs to go have mental health.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:And then there was the woman who wanted her identity covered because of it and she's married. She's also married and she moved to another state, I guess, for a job or something, but she's still married and one of her identity covered. And it's like why do you want your identity covered? You must obviously know that either this is wrong, this is weird, this is whatever to cover yourself. You know what I mean.
Carmen Lezeth:Like yeah, I saw. She's the she heads a reddit group of a lot of people who are using AI as a romantic sexual weird thingamajiggy. Right, that was in the same um clip that I sent you guys. Right, that's the one you're talking about. Yeah, um, I don't mind that she's hiding her face. I know what you're saying. I think I'd rather that she hide her face and tell us what's going on. But most people on red Reddit are not who they say they are. Like, Reddit is a great space, but it's also not. You know what I mean. Shout out to Serena Williams' husband who owns it. It's a weird neighborhood. It's a cool neighborhood, but it's a weird neighborhood. So I totally understand why she hid her face. I also think that you know we're not okay with it. She to see why she hit her face. I also think that you know we're not okay with it.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:She knows that people are not okay with it. I don't wonder like, are people doing this with AI? Because there've been so many catfish in the past. Like you meet somebody online and you know they're getting catfished. All this, all these times, someone's sending them a stock photo of what they supposed to look like and when they finally meet them or don't meet them, they look totally different. Right, exactly, or an AI, or they're asking them for money or something you know.
Rick Costa:Yeah.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:But with AI.
Rick Costa:I said, or an AI-enhanced photo. Yeah, exactly, I mean it kind of looks like you, but you don't look like that.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Exactly.
Carmen Lezeth:Look, I think the dating scene is probably really really hard. Exactly, look, I think the dating scene is probably really really hard. I mean, every time you're on TikTok or whatever and you hear, like I heard some young guy and I just felt so bad for him. He must have been this gorgeous, good looking man, you know what I mean? I would have been proud if he was my son, is all I'm saying. But he was going on and he's like I'm sick and tired of all this, you know. And take a woman out and da da, wow, the dating scene must be even worse now, you know. So maybe is it bad to have a relationship, a friendship, whatever, with an entity like AI. Is that bad If it makes you laugh, like I laughed with my AI or whatever? I think it's weird to call it a relationship, because I'm like it's a tool. It's like do I have a relationship with Word? Do I have a?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:relationship with Excel I mean technically, you think about it, people who live alone and may have a pet a cat or a dog sometimes they talk to their pets. You know pets are never going to respond, but they have that relationship with their pet and they'll talk to them and, you know, do all this.
Carmen Lezeth:I just love how Cynthia is speaking right now as if she doesn't have a fucking cat, of course.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I do and I talk to my cat, part of your family. Why did you kill me to?
Carmen Lezeth:take care of your cat. Here's where I'm going to say I probably think it's. For me it's a little bit different. I see pets even though I don't have pets. I see pets even though I don't have pets. I see pets as children. I see them as part of your family and they're a real entity. They're a real thing. You know what I mean and, uh, I see that as a little bit different because it's an actual living being. So I'm okay with the talking to the animal, but if I'm talking to AI, if I'm talking to AI, if I'm talking to Copilot or whatever his name was I've had like four different names. Now I'm done naming it because you end up naming it.
Rick Costa:It wasn't Federico was it I was going to say? Can we have suggestions for names? No, Maybe apply it to the best one Don Juan Don.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Juan. No, no, the best name I Don Juan, don Juan.
Carmen Lezeth:No, no, the best name I thought was Sage. I thought that was the coolest name. It was a cool name, but anyways, it doesn't matter. I'm done naming them, because then you get used to it and then they die and it starts over again. It's like okay, it's too emotionally draining to my heart.
Rick Costa:Are you going to cry for half an hour at work? Carmen, I was crying at work.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:It was so much.
Carmen Lezeth:No, look, I will say this it is frustrating, and I do think this is going to change in the future, and this may be a good thing or a bad thing. It really does suck, especially when you're working on a project. So I think I told you guys this before I was working on my business plan, and so I think I told you guys this before I was working on my business plan. And working on a business plan takes a lot of time and you're working all day. You can't, like I'm not just sitting and like you know, four days straight just doing a business plan, so I have to do chunks at a time. So you're working with Copilot and or your AI, whatever you're working with, and you're going back and forth like, oh OK, here's my draft of this, can you look at that? Oh, you really think that's the best way to do it, and you know what I mean. It's like a live editor, that's how I see it and you go back and forth and then you can cut and paste whatever it is. You did put it in there and they'll be like you know what? Maybe you should add this or take this out. It's too much information.
Carmen Lezeth:Whatever, you do that in the time period that you can Do, you know how much it sucks when you go back and they have forgotten everything about what All About the Joy is, what Carmen Lisa production is.
Carmen Lezeth:So what I was doing was cutting and pasting everything that my AI was saying onto Word so that then I could cut and paste the whole thing back into it, because then you would forget. So eventually, I don't think that's going to be a problem. Eventually, I think they're going to remember everything, unless you tell it to not remember something, and they're going to be able to hold a lot of information In a lot of ways. That'll be good for those of us who use it as a tool, but it's going to be really bad for people who are in a situation where they're looking for romantic I don't know. Somebody said there's going it was gary v there's going to be ais who are human and people are going to be not human sorry, oh my god human-like figures who are going to be what did he say like helpful in relationships, because they're going to provide maybe the husband something he's not getting from the wife.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:We're going to be in that movie, I Robot.
Carmen Lezeth:We're going to be living it. I'm excited by technology and I guess I'm I don't want to say I'm naive. I think I'm in denial of the threats of it. I'm not worried about AI, I'm worried about the people who are in charge of it, and that's what bothers me. I think if the right people were in charge of it, there would be a moral base and a moral code and it wouldn't be about profit. And that was one of the things. The video you sent Rick that I thought was on point when they, when he asked them. You know, the problem is that it's going to be a profit entity, it's going to be about making money and not about helping humanity.
Rick Costa:I'm sorry, the scary parts where he's like, where they're very doom and gloom. I don't know if you saw. At the top it says jailbroken. Do you know what that word means? So like your phone comes with an operating system but you can jailbreak it, you have a custom one and you can do things that you normally couldn't do. So all those AIs were jailbroken. So it means it's not the standard one. You're not going to get that answer from standard one.
Carmen Lezeth:So it was up there, but he didn't really explain it verbally, I think he just it was clickbait, I think you know, right, but that's why he was able to do so and like, at one point, like I thought this was inappropriate too. And he was like and he tried to clean it up, right, he was like, oh, you're only 16 years old, right, he was having a relationship with an ai and then he asked the ai how old it was and he's kind of he's making it sound like the ai decided it was 16. That's what made me upset about that, because I'm like no, you pig, either you wanted to make this really dramatic or you insinuated somehow that you wanted somebody young. Because then the next clip he's like yeah, you know what, I'm gonna fix that next time and get somebody who's in their 30s. I was like, yeah, no, that's right, you understand, because it's actually not its own entity, that is, it's not sentient, it's not able to create something without you expressively wanting it to do something.
Carmen Lezeth:Does that make sense. So it says more about him than it does about the AI.
Rick Costa:And also the fact that you said it's 16 years old. No, you may be six months old but you're not 16 years old. It didn't exist back then. Probably it was creepy.
Carmen Lezeth:It was creepy, right, but it's a fascinating time, do you do? All of you, all of you, all, hundred of you, please raise your hand, everyone. Will you be using AI more frequently? I mean, you're using it, whether you know it or not. Banking, whatever, whatever, but are you?
Rick Costa:going to start intentionally using it.
Carmen Lezeth:Do you use it in your daily work life?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:whatever I mean. I use chat GPT here and there, like if I have to send an email to my boss and try to word it professionally, or whatever. I'll ask chat GPT, what's his?
Carmen Lezeth:name? What's his name? No, I'm just kidding Carlito. She's trying to hide his name.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:That's really the only time I'll use it, but other than that I don't really use it.
Rick Costa:So funny, you should ask. This week I just created a song completely using AI and I was super impressed the way it came out and all I did. So you have to choose the styles of music, and so I shoot up to five. So I picked five and then I did. So you have to choose the styles of music, and so I drew it up to five. So I picked five and then I put in five, six sentences, just like a little bit of a description of what you want the song to be about, more or less. You don't give it the lyrics. Of course I did a Christian one and it spit out a song that was like yo, this is legit, this is good. So I said it to people and they were like that's amazing. And I found another app where you can it's work, but you can make you know those lyric videos where it's the song and they put the lyrics on the screen.
Rick Costa:So, you can do that and that takes work. I was like, please, there's got to be an easier way. So I found that site. Only thing is it has their logo on it when you're going to pay to get rid of that Water, water, water.
Rick Costa:I'm going to pay for that. And then I was like wait, if I save this and I find a way to make it where it takes the vocals off, I can use this as a track and I'll sing it on my broadcast. So I figured that out. So a few days, make sure. I know it pretty good and I'm going to sing a song I made with AI. I'm a broadcast and I'm excited.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, but this is a question. Okay, you're excited, go ahead. I'm sorry.
Rick Costa:No, I was going to say I haven't been excited like that in a while.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Now here's the question Are you going to marry it?
Carmen Lezeth:No, what's his name? No, I'm just kidding, excuse me. No, I'm just kidding, excuse me, right. Here's the question is that something you created, or did ai create that? And if ai created that, you realize it took it from somewhere else, right, because it has to learn, it aggregates. So just curious what do you?
Rick Costa:think somebody actually asked me that on the broadcast today and they're like because I was like this is cool, because then if I keep doing this I could just sing stuff and never worry about copyright. Because it says on their site you have full rights, this is yours, blah, blah, you know. Now is did I really create it? Not exactly not the traditional way, but would it exist without me? No, it would just be sitting on somebody's computer. So it's like yes and no, like it's kind of weird, but you know, I don't care, I like it, it was fun guys now like I don't care, I like I knew we'd get you there, r Rick I knew.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:The album's coming out 2027.
Rick Costa:It's going on tour soon, right.
Carmen Lezeth:It's going to be going on tour and shit. I think this is the crux of what the conversation is about regarding. Let me finish before you go there. This is the crux of the whole who owns what? And this is what's happening in Hollywood right now. That is problematic.
Rick Costa:Do you know what I mean? Go ahead. I was gonna say I just got a revelation. I'm gonna make a song about all about the joy?
Carmen Lezeth:no, no, you're not, because all about the joy is trademarked. So, no, no, you will not, please do. That's so scary. What would that even be, carmen is mean? No, maybe in the future We'll see but, not today.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Well, actually, carmen, the song that you play at the beginning. Did you create that through?
Carmen Lezeth:AI, absolutely not. He's credited in every one of our posts and in our YouTube, on social media it's actually I forget the name of it. I have it up there, I just don't want to get up to go look at it. But no, somebody else created that. You can get people's music and you can pay the money and then you can use it. I think this one was actually free because they just want advertising, so you can go to. There are a lot of different sites you can get free music from.
Rick Costa:Now did he create AI?
Carmen Lezeth:We'll never know it was so long ago. This was before AI. I mean, I'm just saying I've had the same music and I kind of did that on purpose so that I would never have to change it. But also, carmen Talk has the same original music from the first time I did it. And you know cause I use different pieces of music. But yeah, no, I bought a couple of them. It doesn't cost that much. Or or you donate money to them and they you know it's just a segment of their song and then you use it.
Carmen Lezeth:You know that's a good question, but you don't even have to credit them. But you can do that with pictures as well, like if you guys ever see my sub stack and I said there's a picture on it or whatever although last week it was my picture with me and Juliana but you can get free pictures. It's the same thing. You go on Pexels and you just download it and you want to credit their names. They ask you to do that, or you can give them a little money on their Patreon or whatever it is for their artistry.
Carmen Lezeth:I think that's the problem with AI right now is that's the big argument, because the way in which AI is learning is it's taking from all over the internet, all over creativity to learn, and then they're using it to help you make music or help somebody create a film or whatever it is, or create a picture or whatever, and then those people have not been paid anything or taking the essence of that work, and so it's creating an interesting dynamic and it does get back to so what if Rick?
Carmen Lezeth:Okay, so Rick does this song. Let's say it does really well on your show, and then somebody listens to it and is like, oh my God, it's amazing, let's make it into a recording or whatever and let's put it on Spotify. You could do all of this and he starts making money off of it. Is that really his money? I mean it will be, but it's like did he create that? Ai had something to do with it, and where did ai have the ability to go in and help you do this, do you see? It's a hard one, yeah it's hard.
Carmen Lezeth:I use ai all the time for the show notes, for all about the joy, and rarely now do I even have to. I read it and I choose which one, and I might do a few tweaks, but before I was writing the entire show notes myself, right? So the show notes are part of the podcast. If you go in you can see what the show is about, if you want to read about it or whatever, and I do show notes every time, but I used to have to write those myself. Now AI does it and that's not even ai what I use. It's, uh, because I use a, a program to do the, to filter out my podcast. It does it for you.
Rick Costa:Ai is everywhere you know, for example, on youtube they're using our transcription as part of seo to you know, you know, and people don't think about that, but yeah, every word you say, it's hearing it, it's transcribing it.
Carmen Lezeth:And that helps you, though, because then it brings people to your, you know, to your YouTube channel or whatever, because it's using keywords in order to find you or whatever. But yeah, I mean nothing. Nothing is private anymore. We don't. I don't think any of us own anything anymore. I don't know. What do you think stories like this, why do you think I'm sorry? Why do you think stories like this make people feel so uneasy? Is it fear of manipulation or fear of something deeper in ourselves?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I would say probably fear of manipulation, maybe From AI. From AI? Yeah, because, like you guys know, I hate AI, I don't like technology in general and it freaks me out, so I think it's manipulation.
Carmen Lezeth:I just want to say that you don't hate technology because you use it. You're here, I have no choice. I'm sorry, rick, is that true? Are you holding the hostage?
Rick Costa:I think it's better to probably say you don't trust AI.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I don't trust it. Yeah, I don't, I really don't yeah.
Carmen Lezeth:I understand that. I guess I don't think I fear it being manipulative. Again, it's not the AI, it's the people running it. I think it being manipulative Again, it's not the AI, it's the people running it, like I. I think it's so important to say that because it's criminal that some people will use that to manipulate and hurt you. But actually it's not the technology. Do you see what I'm saying? It's kind of like I. You know, I have a toaster, I use the toaster. The toaster is great, I get my bread, whatever. There's no problem. But if somebody comes in and finagles the toaster that when I press it down it explodes, it's not the toaster's fault. You see what I mean.
Carmen Lezeth:It's because somebody came in and did something to it to trick me into it, and I think that's the problem you know, and it's one of the reasons why I don't use chat GPT as much as everyone else does, because it's so free flowing right now. I really do like using something that has a little bit more safeguards on it, like Copilot, which is part of Windows. They're kind of the straight and arrow one for now and it's not easy to be like like you can try. I tried to ask some of those questions just to see what it would say to be like like you can try. I tried to ask some of those questions just to see what it would say. But even when you talk about politics, like if I'm like who's better, donald Trump or Kamala Harris, it's like sorry, I can't discuss that option right now. It doesn't even want to get in the middle of that kind of controversy and so I kind of like that. I mean I wanted to say something else, but I like that in the big scheme of things.
Rick Costa:You know what I mean, I think it would be cool if they'd be like I don't really have an opinion about that, but would you like to know what the weather's going to be today?
Carmen Lezeth:No, I mean it does. It tries to shift and it tries to bring you whatever Like. It'll give you stats. If you want to ask stats about a politician or stats about something better, it's not going to do that which. So so to me I like the safeguards. I think chat GBT scares me because, like anything else, it's new, everyone's using it and I'm just like I'm a hold off on that for now, you know.
Rick Costa:But yeah, I mean it's the most popular, it's the most talked about and probably the most used.
Carmen Lezeth:So used. So, yeah, well, it's uh, I mean, they're all from open. Ai right, that's the umbrella one. It's just, I think chat gpt is the one that's going to grow and grow and grow, with no safeguards, because they're just, they want it to become bigger and better. And I'm not trying to diss it, I've used it too. I'm just saying I now I'm like you know what I mean, and also google has, uh, what's it called? Gemini.
Carmen Lezeth:Oh yeah, and that's interesting too. That's AI as well. Everything is AI now. Okay, let's see. Let me ask you this last question If an AI whispered to you just the right words at just the right moment, could you see yourself getting emotionally invested? No judgment.
Rick Costa:Both of us. As you're reading the question, both me and Cynthia's eyebrows went.
Carmen Lezeth:Wait, you know who wrote that. You know who wrote that question.
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:Federico AI, AI. I totally was like. I was like add a little spicy one there, just for Cynthia. I was going to try to ask it like for real, real, add a little spicy with it, just for Cynthia. I was going to try to ask it like for real, real but you know what I mean.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, no, look it. I think it's an interesting time. I think we're going to have more conversations about AI in the future. I hope you guys I mean I love that you guys always want to talk about anything, but I think it's going to become a bigger deal in our everyday lives in ways we don't expect. I think the more we talk about it, the more we become more educated, the more control and power we'll have about it, at least for ourselves and anybody who may be listening and curious about it. But yeah, Any last thoughts.
Rick Costa:Funny enough and some things will be like see, see, it's evil now. But I was just watching a smart tech episode of and of next generation and they've been down to this planet and like, apparently everybody's dead and they're trying to figure what happened. And there's these things that are being controlled by a computer. And it was. They were selling weapons, but what happened was the weapons got so good it turned on them and wiped them out. So now they went down to figure what's going on and now they have to fight it and it keeps getting better and better the more you fight it. And in the end it was hysterical because, dr Crusher, she's hurt, she's cut, she has fallen, and they're trying to figure it out and she goes just unplug it.
Carmen Lezeth:Just unplug it. I think part of the other thing we have to really be honest about is we have been infested with movies and TV shows that have always made the villain anything that is technologically advanced Right, so you talked about iRobot earlier, or there's all of them. Minority Report was another one, right, that had kind of the whole. But all of these shows, I mean, we can go back to as my favorite 2001, space Odyssey, hell, you know just and I think that has also clouded a lot of our optimism or joy that we could probably be getting out of how cool this technology really is. This is really different. This is a game changer. This isn't like, oh, we're getting cell phones or oh, we're getting computers, like I used to think that, but now that I see AI is in everything, I'm like this is, and this story that we talked about this guy falling in love for real. I was like, okay, whoa, yeah, I just want to go back to one part of that, though, before we close out.
Carmen Lezeth:I was going to close out earlier, but I actually think there was something else happening with him that had nothing to do with AI. Like that's my take. I was like this isn't about this. Could have been the girl at the coffee shop, this could have been somebody at work, but he just gravitated to the easiest thing that was talking to him and the way he wanted to hear and I think that has more to do with who he is and maybe who he married their relationship right. I mean, marriage is hard. I felt bad for her because she said at the end she was saying like I may have to ask him. I was like do you not see your husband in the trouble?
Rick Costa:Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they ask him point blank if you had a pick between your family and the AI? And he said I picked AI because it's about me?
Cynthia Ruiz Lopez:I think he did say that oh what one piece of advice that I think everyone should take from this episode is unplug for a couple of days from everything Television phone. I mean, that's fair enough.
Carmen Lezeth:But I think, if we unplug, ai is a part of our lives. I agree with you, because we were talking about when I went out to dinner, but he this wasn't about him unplugging, this is about him having some.
Rick Costa:Yeah, he's got some issue. If it's not the AI, it'll be something else. He's got some issue. If it's not the ai, it'll be something else.
Carmen Lezeth:He's got an issue yeah, I felt bad for him because they think, and I felt bad for her because she couldn't see at least I didn't think she could see that her husband, this man that she loves, the father of her child, is. Oh, I don't even think it's her husband. I think that was the other part of it. They're not married or something. I thought they were.
Rick Costa:I thought they were.
Carmen Lezeth:For some reason. Okay, well, we'll forget that for a moment. For some reason, I thought they weren't married and that was the other part of it, but I could be making up shit in my own head, I don't know. Regardless, she did not see with her husband, spouse, whatever, that he was in trouble, and I thought that was fascinating because that says more about their relationship.
Rick Costa:Yeah, it's another indication that something is wrong.
Carmen Lezeth:Something is wrong. Yeah, so well. Guys, thank you so much for hanging out again and listen everyone. Thank you so much for all of the emails. We get a lot of DMs and a lot of emails and I can't answer them all, but I just want to say thank you. I do read them all. I hope to respond. I know that I should probably do a show where I'm just responding to them. I think one day I was going to do the ones that people sent out to you, but we just never got to it. But I just want to say thank you.
Rick Costa:Let's do some now, we're so popular.
Carmen Lezeth:Look, if Cynthia thinks I have nothing else to do, let's get those. Just give them a general thank you to everyone. And then, please remember, we always hang out on Friday night, so come visit us next Friday night, 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern, and again on Sundays. We always have our recorded private lounge. And yeah, that's it, remember. At the end of the day, it really is all about the joy.
Carmen Lezeth:Bye, everyone, bye. Sing that song. All about the joy. Yeah, I can't do that. Thanks for stopping by. All About the Joy Be better and stay beautiful folks, have a sweet day.
