Get Temu off your phone now

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim Commando today, your daily podcast to keep you up to date with all things digital and beyond. And I'd love to have you be a part of our podcast. You can make an appointment to speak with me. Just head over to commando.com. and on the top right, there's a button that says, email. Kim, fill that out, and that's it. So right now, about 850,000 people are clicking on a banana on the Internet.

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
Yes. 350,000. Yes.

Andrew Babinski
Why?

Kim Commando
Okay, well, it's an interesting thing. There's a game on steam, and the whole idea is that you click the banana, and then every so often, you get a banana skin. Okay? And then you collect the banana skins, and then you can sell the banana skins for three cents. And so, like, for example, the player will get one cent, the developer gets one cent, and then steam, the platform, gets one cent. And so you have from whoever has this banana thing going on. Okay, so you get these banana skins, and then you go sell them. Somebody will go buy them. It's like the stock market. Yes, yes. And so people are betting that these banana skins are gonna just go up, up, up in value. And so, like, you have some banana skins that are selling for, like, a few hundred dollars. You have a banana skin that's selling for, like, $1,000. But here's what's going on. It's a classic pump and dump scam, okay? So if you're sitting there thinking to yourself, Kim, I'm gonna go on the Internet and make some money today by clicking on a banana, and then I'm gonna sell the banana skin that I get. Um, it's just not going to happen.

Andrew Babinski
Even if it's early? Even early on. I mean. Cause you got to have the pump before the dump. Are we not in the pump stage?

Kim Commando
We are in the pump stage, but there is now rumors that a lot of these clicking on the bananas are bots, okay? And so steam says, well, you know, we're not supposed to have bots on the steam platform, so they may shut it down at any given moment. So if I were you, I wouldn't be going after the banana. But speaking of, what do you call it when a banana eats another banana?

Andrew Babinski
A cannibal?

Kim Commando
Banana canna? Banana lism.

Andrew Babinski
That was close. I love the smooth delivery on that punchline. Cannabis. Can we edit that in post to make it sound like she just said one word, not four?

Kim Commando
Well. Cause you said can of banana.

Andrew Babinski
Can of banana.

Kim Commando
Can of bananaism. Can of bananaism.

Andrew Babinski
We'll edit that. That's gonna be so seamless by the time we're done. You'll love it.

Kim Commando
It all works over and over. It does. It does. And on that happy note, welcome. It's Kim Commando. Today it's your fun podcast about all things digital. And of course, joining me is the ever so handsome Andrew Babinski. You know, you are getting women that are sending me notes saying, you know, is Andrew single? I don't know what I should say.

Andrew Babinski
No, you're not. You're not getting any of those messages.

Kim Commando
I have been. I did. I've gotten two. Two?

Andrew Babinski
All right, two. That's more than nothing. I appreciate it. Tell him to send me over some bananas and we'll talk. No, I'm taken. Now, before I get into the show and the top five things I need to know, how did the contact lens go?

Kim Commando
Okay, well, we had airplane troubles, and so the flight got delayed, and then I couldn't go see the contact lens lady. We're talking about my latest appointment at UCLA for my cornea transplant. So I went in, and the vision is 125 in my right eye. Doctor says that's probably where it's going to hang out and be stabilized. With glasses, they can bring me to 2030, which is pretty amazing. But he said that because of all the stigmatism that I'm probably not going to want to wear the glasses because it's going to make me go dizzy, because I'm going to look down and go like, oh, what's going on here? Because one eye is seeing this and the other eyes seeing this. And so on July 8 is my next appointment with the contact lens lady, who said, just looking at the record, she came in, she's like, you know what? I can put a contact lens on you and you'll be able to see 2020.

Andrew Babinski
That's awesome.

Kim Commando
Isn't that amazing? So I'm super excited about that red shoes today, Andrew. Very nice.

Andrew Babinski
The original hey doods, the hey dudes that started it all.

Kim Commando
We hated them then and we hate them now. What do you have coming up?

Andrew Babinski
We have a story of a content writer who had an amazing creative job and how AI changed everything.

Kim Commando
Well, and then we also have a great guest guy who tracks people, who actually steals cars. I mean, this is a good samaritan. I love good samaritan stories. When were you talking with him?

Andrew Babinski
Yeah, I don't know what he's doing. The Internet is for bullying and name calling. I don't know what he's doing. Getting online, doing good deeds.

Kim Commando
What is happening with that? Hey, do me a big favor. Don't forget to, like, comment, share, follow, subscribe, whatever you want to do. As long as you tell just one person about Kim commando today, we consider ourselves complete. Right, Andrew?

Andrew Babinski
Absolutely. Together, just as one.

Kim Commando
Yes, just one. We are just one. And speaking of numbers, here are the top five things you need to know. It's happening with tech right now. We're going to start with T Moo. Have you purchased anything on Teemo?

Andrew Babinski
Never. Can I tell you a quick Timo story, though?

Kim Commando
Yes.

Andrew Babinski
So I went to my mailbox. Me and the kids open it up. There's one of the keys for the packages below. There's actually two keys. And the kids got all excited because they thought they were going to have some packages. We opened them up and it's like twelve different teemo packages. But not for us, for our neighbor. And we walk everything down, we knock on the door, we hand him all his packages. He was very grateful. He was from China, only had been in the US about two years. And that's where they do all their shopping. They won't shop anywhere else. They don't go on Amazon. They don't go through Walmart. They do everything through Teemo.

Kim Commando
That's it.

Andrew Babinski
That's it. 100% of all of their, you know, non groceries. They couldn't have said more nice things.

Kim Commando
So back on April 15, 2023, that's when I broke the news that Teemu was owned and operated by the communist China. And guess what's happening now?

Andrew Babinski
What happened?

Kim Commando
Well, the New York Post broke a story that, guess what? Timu's owned by communist China.

Titan Crawford
Yes.

Andrew Babinski
They broke your story after you already broke it.

Kim Commando
Yes. Now, so many people are saying, like, why don't you like TMU? I don't like TMU because, well, first of all, it is owned by communist China. And they do get a copy of every single thing that you do on your phone. It monitors all your apps, tracks your notifications, reads your private messages, goes into your chats, bypasses the firewall. Any type of security software that you have gains access to everything on your phone. So just like TikTok, now we have Teemo that captures every single thing.

Andrew Babinski
Now, for them to capture, is that simply by going to the website, or do you have to have, like, the app installed?

Kim Commando
Oh, no, you have to. You have the app.

Andrew Babinski
Okay. So if you go to the website, you're going to be somewhat protected.

Kim Commando
Yeah. You're just going to buy, you know, some cheap chinese junk. But you can do that if you want. But this is an interesting stat. What do you think the percentages of Americans who have purchased at least one item on Teemo?

Andrew Babinski
I'm gonna say it's pretty low. I'm gonna say, like, 35%.

Kim Commando
Ooh, you're right on. Spot on. 34.3%.

Andrew Babinski
Look at that. That was solely a guess.

Kim Commando
See? And, ladies, not only is he not single, he's very intelligent, too. See that? Thank you. Okay, so this next story, I actually put in one of our free newsletters that you can sign up for over@getchem.com and it was about, I said, a teenage girl's dance videos, they blew up on instagram. And then because of Meta's filtering, is that men who liked little girls dance videos and liked sexual content now became the majority of her followers. 92% of her followers are adult males. Okay. And then I actually got an email from somebody this morning who said through the website, who said, now, you mentioned she was a teenager. Was she a young teenager or an older teenager? Because if she's an older teenager, I don't see a problem with that.

Andrew Babinski
I mean, there is a difference between 13 and 18.

Kim Commando
Okay. He said the difference between 13 and 14 and 16 and 17, though he.

Andrew Babinski
Should have went one more year, he'd been just fine. He'd been perfectly legal.

Kim Commando
In case you're wondering. She's 15. I actually looked up. She's 15 years old.

Andrew Babinski
I read this story, actually, yesterday when I was just booming around on the Internet, and part of the story said that the parents were just like, oh, okay. And they accepted it. They want their daughter to be an influencer so bad that they accepted 92% of old men just ogling her.

Kim Commando
It's disgusting.

Andrew Babinski
It's awful. I would have had my daughter off that app in a nanosecond. I don't care how much money it's making.

Kim Commando
No, it's ridiculous, you know, so she's got all these, well, pedophiles. Is that the right word?

Andrew Babinski
Sure. Perverts, pebble files, sickos, whatever you want, however you want to describe them.

Kim Commando
Moving on to number three is I read the story in the Atlantic, and so many people are dissing the apple vision pro headsets. You know, we are, too. I mean, I haven't really tried one, so I can't say from experience, but I don't really see a need for me to go have one. Do you have a need for one?

Andrew Babinski
No, not at all. And the hype died from those things so fast. It was like, they're out. Everybody on the Internet had one. They were posting all their videos and then they all returned them and it's dead. I mean, I haven't now. I've not seen one video of someone using it since two weeks after the release.

Kim Commando
Yeah, it's kind of sad, but the Atlantic wrote the story about people who are actually using it, like this gal, Maxine Collard, and she has severe vision problems. I mean, really, really bad problems. And before, when she was growing up, she would take her windows PC and each letter that she could see on the screen would have to be 2ft tall. Could you imagine that? No, I mean, it's just. It would be crazy to try to do that. So what she has found with the Apple Vision Pro, that she's able. She said it's like she just strapped two iPads right on her face. So now she's completing her PhD using the Apple Vision Pro. There was another guy in this article who has severe hearing loss. So that when he's in a room and he's trying to have a meeting, is that he can't really decipher which sound is coming from which person. Okay. So now with the Apple vision Pro, he can go into these meetings and he knows exactly who's saying what. So the Apple vision Pro, I don't think it's going to be a huge market for them. But if any of our viewers and listeners is that if you have any hearing or sight loss, they also mentioned people that have, like, severe cases of autism, that it actually helps them focus on things, is that you might want to look at the Apple Vision Pro. It's a good thing that you do have, Jennifer, because, you know, what's the latest thing coming in at number four? That's not dating apps. You know how people are meeting right now?

Andrew Babinski
No, how are they meeting?

Kim Commando
Running clubs. Running clubs.

Andrew Babinski
Single for life.

Kim Commando
Why? You went and try it.

Andrew Babinski
No, I can't. I'm not a runner. I get so bored so fast that I cannot. I can ride my bike because I can put some headphones in and I'm going fast and it's over quickly. But no, I am not a runner.

Kim Commando
You were biking for a long time, weren't you?

Andrew Babinski
Oh, yeah. I love riding my bike.

Kim Commando
Well, now the new dating thing is running clubs. And the millennials specifically are saying, like, it's so nice to meet somebody in real life.

Andrew Babinski
Shocker.

Kim Commando
I know. I know. Speaking of a shocker, 95% of all 13 to 17 year olds are on some sort of social media. So. Doctor Vivek Murtha, is that how you pronounce his name? Surgeon general, whatever his name is. Yes, whatever. He's the surgeon general. He has come out, and this is exact quote, it is time to require a surgeon general warning label on social media platforms stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. Speaker one.

Andrew Babinski
Okay, so I read this and the first thing I did was had kind of the same tone where you sound like you're doubting that this would have any impact. They said that minors, anyone under the age of 18, if they consume more, 3 hours or more per day, that it doubles the chance for depression, social anxiety, mental health disorders like that. And currently an average 13 to 18 year old is on social media 5 hours a day, which is insane. I looked at my phone and I'm about 30 minutes a day, but it seems like a lot for me. So if they put this warning on there, they're equating it to putting the warning on cigarettes. And when they first put warning on cigarettes, 40% of Americans smoked cigarettes and today it's down to 12%. So it has some impact.

Kim Commando
I don't think it's the warning labels. I don't have. I think it has absolutely nothing to do with it. I think it's the fact that suddenly we learned that the tobacco companies were putting nicotine into the cigarettes, that we've become addicted to the cigarettes. And then we all learned, like, oh, my gosh, smoking causes cancer.

Andrew Babinski
That's what's on the warning label.

Kim Commando
Okay. But I think they're a little late to the game with the social media warning. I think it's going to have absolutely no impact on anything other than, other than somebody in Washington feels like they did something positive. They should have done this like 20 years ago. Where were they?

Andrew Babinski
Speaker one but don't you think some parents would sign up, you know, your kid, mom, please, can I get Snapchat? And they go to sign them up, and when they go hit sign up, this huge thing pops up. It will have some social impact. I'm not saying it's going to work. I'm not saying it's going to cure all depression, but it'll have some impact.

Kim Commando
You think that the kids are going to mom and dad and saying, I really want a Snapchat account. Really?

Andrew Babinski
Speaker one well, my sister has three teenagers. Well, one's now in their twenties. They all had to get permission to get social media. If they had social media on their phone hidden in hid naps or not, and they weren't allowed to have it, it would get deleted. They would get punished. I mean, it's all bearing on the parent, obviously. But you're right. There is a majority of kids that just go out, do whatever they want, and their parents aren't paying attention at all. That's why they're on social media 5 hours a day.

Kim Commando
Well, I think it becomes really, maybe a warning label isn't such a bad idea, but I think it really comes down to the parents. But, you know, speaking of warning labels, here are some ones that I found on a wheelbarrow. There was a warning that said, not intended for highway use.

Andrew Babinski
Darn it. I was hoping to bring some bricks to flagstaff. Now I got to take side streets.

Kim Commando
All the way up on a thermometer. Once used rectally, this thermometer should never be used orally. Okay, we needed that.

Andrew Babinski
What if I use a scrub daddy?

Kim Commando
Okay, on Apple's website, do not ever eat an ipod shuffle. That was a little tiny ones. Remember the on a dishwasher? Do not allow children to play inside the dishwasher.

Andrew Babinski
No.

Kim Commando
Come on.

Andrew Babinski
Kids loving it. It's like a sprinkler that's in a stadium, you know?

Kim Commando
And Caitlyn Jenner, she should have a warning label, too.

Andrew Babinski
Should.

Kim Commando
She may contain nuts.

Andrew Babinski
It absolutely does.

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim commando today. We're so glad that you're here with us because otherwise, you know, Andrew and I would just be talking to ourselves. And just a quick reminder is that we love that you're getting the audio version of Kim Commando today. That's where you can find us in your favorite podcast player. Just search for Commando with a kick. Just a reminder that you also get the multimedia experience. That's right. You can watch the video over@YouTube.com kimcommando. Once again, that's YouTube.com kimcommando. And be sure to drop a few comments and likes and shares because that's how we reach more people. And one of the things I love about Kim Commando today is I get to interview some really interesting people. And joining us is Titan Crawford. Isn't that a great name, Andrew?

Andrew Babinski
Titan Crawford sounds like a professional wrestler.

Kim Commando
Yes.

Andrew Babinski
You know what, Titan, I'm gonna take you down this Sunday at the palace in Detroit, and me and you are going head to head in the cage.

Kim Commando
Obviously, he's been watching too much wrestling matches, too many of them. So, Titan, thanks for being here. Thanks for joining us. And so would we call you the good Samaritan of cars on Facebook? Is that it?

Titan Crawford
Well, thanks for having me, brother. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, no, it's. I guess you could call us the community group of good samaritans that find stolen cars on Facebook.

Kim Commando
So how did you get into this?

Titan Crawford
It was about two and a half years ago in October, middle of the pandemic, and walking my dog, Timmy, who's hanging out here down with me. We found an out of place Kia that was disheveled and trash everywhere. And so we contacted police. And at that time, there was no police interest. It had yet to be reported stolen. And so through some sleuthing, we discovered that, in fact, it was stolen and were able to contact the owner thanks to the magic of the Internet, and let them know, hey, your car is probably not in your driveway right now. So. And that took off from there.

Kim Commando
And so how many people are in the Facebook group now?

Titan Crawford
We got a little over 20,000 in there.

Andrew Babinski
Now. I was in Portland, like, two summers ago, and when I landed and we got in the Uber, I asked the Uber driver, could you take us on a scenic route before we get to the hotel? And he was like, sure. So we drove along the Columbia is the Columbia river that separates Vancouver and Portland. And I want to say, I don't want to exaggerate, I don't want to say, like 1000 cars are just sitting there right next to the river. They're burnt to a crisp. So Portland is like the perfect part of the country to do something like this.

Titan Crawford
Yeah. Two years ago, it was extremely out of control, and that's kind of how it all started. You could turn a corner and there's a stolen car. The particular road you drove was marine Drive. Um, and all throughout marine Drive was abandoned stolen cars, because it's not really residential there. Um, it's commercial traffic that moves through there, you know, moving from one part of the city to the other. And so Marine Drive, two years ago, we were up there every day finding stolen cars, and a lot of them were burnt up or destroyed or stripped. And it's gotten a lot better since then, which is awesome.

Andrew Babinski
Good.

Titan Crawford
But, yeah, back then, it was the wild, wild west of stolen cars. They were everywhere.

Kim Commando
Now, why is that important? I mean. Cause I don't see anything like that really happening in Phoenix.

Titan Crawford
It was a culmination of a bunch of events in the city. They lowered the police staffing. The pandemic played a huge role. How the city responded to everything. So people that were stealing the cars, if they did get, you know, taken to jail, they'd get right back out at that point in time to go, you know, steal another car, and they'd steal one and go back to wherever they were. So now we've got a little more accountability here in the city. Uh, some of the people that were stealing 50, 60 cars a month per person, you know, they've been incarcerated, and that reduces, uh, the amount of auto theft for sure.

Kim Commando
And so how many cars have you reunited with owners?

Titan Crawford
We've never kept track. We're in the thousands, probably between, like, three to 4000, maybe more. It's. We tried to keep track, and it was just too much to keep track of. So there was days, you know, where you're finding ten to 15 stolen cars and to try and go through and count all those up day after day. We gave up after, like, two months. I have a team that helps me manage the group. There's four of us total. And so since we're always busy helping recover cars or finding cars, it was just one thing we just didn't have time for, because we're all volunteers, we don't get paid for this, and we do this outside of our jobs. So time is the one thing that we wish we had more of.

Andrew Babinski
Now, if I was just a person in Portland, and I'm walking around and I see what I think is a stolen car, like, parked in an alley or something, am I allowed to snap a picture and put it up on the Facebook page so people can find it?

Titan Crawford
Yeah, 100%. And we've also got public information that allows us to check that for theft records through the National Crime Information center. So, and so we can run a VIN number, we can run a license plate and see if it's been reported stolen.

Kim Commando
So how do you keep track of who enters the Facebook group? I mean, what if it's a thief that wants to see what you guys are tracking?

Titan Crawford
Yeah. So we've got. We're a lot of firsts in the country. We're the first Facebook group to be private. So what it allows us to do is preview the people that want to join and do a little research on them before they're able to join us. And so because of that, we're able to make sure the people that are up to no good aren't able to participate with us.

Kim Commando
And so are you finding more and more cars have air tags on the inside?

Titan Crawford
Man, I wish everybody had a simple tracker in their car. 90% of these cars would be found in 24 hours. If you had a well hidden. That's the key word. A well hidden tracker of an airtag, a tile, a smart tag of any type. If you hide it in a body panel, to where it can't be retrieved out. That would eliminate 90% of these thefts. Or solve them. Solve them quickly. So the people that have the airtags in their cars, they find them nine times out of ten within less than 24 hours.

Andrew Babinski
Wow.

Kim Commando
Yeah. But now the airtags will give you a warning. If there's an unknown tracker near you and your phone, they just fix that. That was a big loophole for stalkers, but now it's like you get in somebody's car. Because I get in my son's car and he has a tracker on the inside, and then it says, oh, unknown tracker near you. And then it shows up with the last four digits of his cell phone number, which. It's great that they finally fixed that, though.

Titan Crawford
Yeah, no, it's good for, like, your personal security. You don't want to be tracked by, you know, some stock or anything, but for the protection of your property, it's great. And the last thing that you know you want is your car to go missing. But if it does go missing and if you can do a multi layered approach like an airtag and then a different version, which, like a tile. So you've got two different ways to track your car. And I've noticed that probably like 75% of these cars that have the airtags in them, they don't get identified by the people that have it as having an airtag because maybe they're not using an iPhone, maybe they're using an Android device, which are typically less expensive and more readily available, which is going to fit more of the demographic of the people who steal cars.

Kim Commando
Yeah. Yeah. Because on Android, you used to have to download that app out of the Google Play store. Then it took ten minutes to find it. Now finally, Apple and Google's getting together. But, you know, so. So you mentioned this is all volunteer. What do you do as a day job?

Titan Crawford
I'm in the auto industry. I've sold vehicles for 22 years. So I know. I know a lot about cars and so this is kind of an extension of that. So for me personally, it's all cars all the time. Cars at work, cars off work, and just, you know, I find stolen cars that happen to come by my work. That's a bad news for them, but makes it easy when they drive them up to my driveway.

Kim Commando
So what kind of cars do you sell?

Titan Crawford
I sell used pickup trucks. So do you. There's a. Yeah, good demand for that. And, you know, got a lot of small businesses that need trucks for their business. So that's most of my clients.

Kim Commando
Any. Any cyber trucks on the lot?

Titan Crawford
No. No cybertruck yet.

Andrew Babinski
You can't sell a chiver truck. Elon Musk is going to sue you for 50,000 if you sell it in the first year. Come on, Cam.

Titan Crawford
I don't think we have the resources at my job to charge those trucks, so.

Kim Commando
Hey, Titan, thanks for being here. Andrew, you've got to give him a good sign off.

Andrew Babinski
Hey, brother. I'll see you in the Madison Square garden. These four inch pythons against Tyson Crawford. Bring it, brother.

Titan Crawford
I appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me. And just you do what you can to secure your vehicle. A simple wheel club, a simple tracker. It doesn't have to be expensive because there's all sorts of aftermarket alarms and anti theft and gps out there. The simple solutions are often the best.

Kim Commando
You got it, Titan. Thanks for being here.

Andrew Babinski
Thanks, man.

Titan Crawford
Thank you.

Kim Commando
You know, just a good reminder, right? Yeah. Do you have trackers inside your cars?

Andrew Babinski
No.

Kim Commando
You don't have a car?

Andrew Babinski
I'm actually so bad, I just leave my keys in my car.

Kim Commando
Do you?

Andrew Babinski
Yeah.

Kim Commando
I mean, why?

Andrew Babinski
It's illegal. It's illegal. No, I don't park in the garage. I just leave them in the middle console so I can just get in and start the car. I know. I'm an idiot. I know.

Kim Commando
Okay. You're also the one who uses a debit card, but that's okay.

Andrew Babinski
I make a lot of bad choices.

Kim Commando
Bad life choices. Do not take Andrew's advice.

Andrew Babinski
Never.

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim commando today. We're so glad that you're here. I mean, absolutely. Don't forget to sign up for our free newsletter. Over 500,000 folks get tech smart every single day. And you should, too. You can sign up over@getchim.com. dot. Once again, that's getchim.com dot. You know, let me tell you, I did the math. And it's 4.92 stars out of five stars. Yes. We have over 200,000 thumbs up. That's awesome. And it's a. And thank you. And it's a great accompany to this because this podcast is growing. It's wildly successful. We are number three and tech podcast.

Andrew Babinski
Number three tech podcast in Rwanda.

Kim Commando
Rwanda. In Rwanda. Yes. And you know, we're proud of that.

Andrew Babinski
You know what? I need to look up the YouTube subscribers in Rwanda. I mean, we may be on the tops of that chart and list as well, which is huge in Rwanda.

Kim Commando
Yeah. So if you're. If you're, like, watching or listening and you're the part of like the whole.

Andrew Babinski
Visitors bureaucracy and the chamber of Commerce from Rwanda.

Kim Commando
I don't think we're gonna go, but that's my thanks for asking.

Andrew Babinski
Maybe I'll go if it's a free trip. I'll do anything for a free trip.

Kim Commando
As long as they're not fighting.

Andrew Babinski
Exactly.

Kim Commando
Something's going on there. So what's going on with you?

Andrew Babinski
So an anonymous content writer went online to. And the reason why he remains anonymous is because he doesn't want to lose his job and he also doesn't want to tell his story and hurt from getting a new job. But he was part of two, two years ago, he was part of a team of 60 people, and their job was to be creative and write Internet blog content that the company would then package up and sell to people. They did it from every single business, real estate and aircrafts, whatever. And you think of it, they came up with it and there was 60 people writing. Well, the company wanted to save some money and they said so from now on, what were going to do is were going to take a headline like real estate prices boom in northern Kentucky, put it into chat GPT. Chat GPT will put out an outline that will help you write your content faster. And once they implemented this and everybody learned, they cut some of the staff. So they went from 60 down to 40 writers. Then they decided, we're going to go from just chat GPT doing the outline to jet chat GPT doing everything, writing the headline, creating the idea for the article, and writing the entire article. And everyone's job was immediately in danger and everyone got let go, except for one guy, the one who is telling his story, he went from one guy, they went from 60 writers to one guy. And instead of being on the creative side, where he used to come with the ideas and write the content and write the blog, now all he's doing is getting the articles from chat GPT and editing them to make them sound human.

Kim Commando
Wow.

Andrew Babinski
An entire group of writers blown out.

Kim Commando
So the freelance writing business is in the crapper.

Andrew Babinski
It is. It really is. And these were all staffed writers. They weren't even freelancers. They were all employees of this company. I mean, this is what this company does. This company puts together content to sell to people. That is their sole purpose. And they eliminated all of their staff except for one guy. And he talks about how awful it is because no longer does he get to come up with ideas and be creative, but the chat GPT makes the same errors and the same mistakes and the same way it delivers its. And he's doing the same edits every single day, and that's all he's doing.

Kim Commando
So. So he's probably going to get fired, right?

Andrew Babinski
He absolutely will. Once they figure out how to have chat GPT edit itself so it no longer sounds robotic and sounds human, which is coming. Yeah, he's going to be out of a job and he's going to have to find somewhere else. There was another article that I read this weekend where it talked about the amount of graphic designers and the amount of freelance writers down 25% when it comes to the gig work, because it's all being replaced by AI.

Kim Commando
Well, we're trying to find an in person staff writer, by the way.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, human.

Kim Commando
Yes. Honest to gosh, human. I want to.

Andrew Babinski
Why would you do that? You can just plug it into a.

Kim Commando
Computer because, you know, it just doesn't sound right.

Andrew Babinski
It doesn't.

Kim Commando
It doesn't have the research. It's not always correct. You know, we're still laughing about putting glue on pizza, and it doesn't have the feeling that there's a person behind it. And everything that we write has that feeling. And so if anybody's listening and watching and you're looking for the ultimate opportunity, I mean, the best opportunity, you do have to be living in Phoenix, Arizona, or the metro area. And, you know, linen is a choice in your wardrobe, definitely when it's 115 degrees out.

Andrew Babinski
Okay, is this a work from home position or in the office?

Kim Commando
In the office.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, nice.

Kim Commando
Okay, you wanna know why?

Andrew Babinski
Why?

Kim Commando
Because we have freelancers, and they're not always reliable.

Andrew Babinski
Okay.

Kim Commando
They don't always do what you want them to do. And I was talking to allie about this, and I was standing outside allie's office where, you know, we have cubicles right outside her office. And I said, you know, I said, here's the difference. Let's say we need somebody to do a story about the top ten prompts if you're in a marketing position. So now we're going to do it with a freelancer. So you have to contact all the freelancers and figure out which one has time to do it. Okay. And then you have to make sure it's one of the freelancers who, you know, is really good at writing this type of content. Then you have to outline the story of what you're looking for and tell them, give them examples of some of the prompts, and then you have to send it to them with a deadline. And then they're going to write back and say, I can't make that deadline, and then they're going to have questions about the prompts, and they're going to answer those questions again, and then comes back, then the copy comes in, and then you have to edit it. Then you have to edit it with them, but you have to get a time where you can actually edit with them that's convenient for them.

Andrew Babinski
I got it.

Kim Commando
You.

Andrew Babinski
I get it. I know why now. That sounds like a nightmare.

Kim Commando
It is. It is. So we have the job open over@commando.com. careers. Commando.com careers.

Andrew Babinski
Let me ask you, can I ask you a question, and you'll be honest with me at any point? Did you say, let's try AI to write content for the newsletter, for the website, for the show?

Kim Commando
Of course. Yes.

Andrew Babinski
And when you did, when you tried it, you obviously didn't stick with it. What was the main reason why?

Kim Commando
It didn't sound like a person. Okay. It felt stiff. It felt almost robotic. Will it get better in the future? Yes. And I even sat there, Andrew. Oh, my gosh. I sat there for hours, like 3 hours, teaching chat, GPT to write like me. I gave it show scripts, I gave it dlhs. I gave it USA Today columns, Daily Mail work, New York Post, USA Today. I mean, it's not like there's not a lot of content that I've written, so I just kept feeding it to it, feeding it and saying, you know, write this, make it sound like me. Just couldn't do it.

Titan Crawford
Okay.

Andrew Babinski
It will get there, but who knows when? Hopefully, for all your employees sake, not anytime soon.

Kim Commando
Hey, it's Kim Commando today. Just a quick reminder to, like, comment, share, and also get the free newsletter. I mean, just try it. You try it once, you're gonna be hooked. Sign up over at get kim.com. once again, that's get kim.com dot. When I say, like, comment, share, that's wherever you get your podcasts, and make sure you leave us a great five star review. And if you can say a few kind words about the podcast, well, that's even better, because that's how you kind of work with the algorithms, because the algorithms say, oh, they must really love this. I bet somebody else might, too. Yes. All right, so, andrew, we were talking a lot about artificial intelligence in humans.

Andrew Babinski
Yes.

Kim Commando
Right.

Andrew Babinski
One more AI story. McDonald's was working with IBM on replacing, not fully replacing, but at least taking the orders at a drive thru with a chatbot instead of an employee. The employee would still be there monitoring the orders, processing the payments. But the interaction between the customer and McDonalds at the drive thru would be AI, and theyve canceled that contract with IBM, and they are taking it out of the 100 test stores that they had it in. So youre thinking, oh, okay, customers didnt like it. They dont want to talk to AI. They dont want to talk to a computer. They want to talk to a person. That's not why they're doing it. They're doing it because they're probably going to sign a new deal with Google, who's already working with Wendy's on their AI at the drive thru, because McDonald's also has a deal with Google for a chatbot for employees. So if the ice cream machine's down or there's an issue with the register, you can just go to the AI internal chatbot, ask them, what do I need to do? And it will tell you. And my favorite part is that this chatbot's name is ask Pickles. So when the employees have to interact with the chatbot, they have to say, pickles. How do we fix the ice cream machine? It's not working. Hey, Pickles.

Kim Commando
They couldn't come up with something like Ronnie, like Mackie? No, it's pickles. It's really pickles?

Andrew Babinski
Yes, and I love it.

Kim Commando
No, you're not. You're making this up.

Andrew Babinski
Hundred percent. It's the internal employee McDonald's chat box is ass pickles.

Kim Commando
We should have one of those for our staff.

Andrew Babinski
Anytime you have a problem, just go ask Pickles. What should we, oh, what would we call it here?

Kim Commando
It couldn't be pickles.

Andrew Babinski
No, that wouldn't make sense. Little commando, little Kimmy.

Kim Commando
No. How about ask Blondie?

Andrew Babinski
I mean, I like it, but I don't like it as much as seeing a 16 year old yelling at pickles on how to make change for a Big Mac when you got a $10 bill.

Kim Commando
I know. That's so funny. Ask pickles. Hey, we are doing a soft launch on our new website.

Andrew Babinski
Oh, nice.

Kim Commando
Before we leave you, we rolled out a brand new website. It's really slow right now, so that's why we're not doing, like, this big push. But if you are wondering what it might look like, head over to commando.com, but do not send me any notes like, oh, the website's so slow. Okay, we know that it's slow. It's indexing all the articles in the background, but it couldn't index them unless it was live. So we know that it's slow, but it's, I think you're really gonna dig it because the advertising has been cut like 75% okay, so, yeah, I know.

Andrew Babinski
That's huge.

Kim Commando
You know, Andrew, you're looking at me like, wait, she just cut money, right?

Andrew Babinski
Someone's saying, here's a bag of money. And you're like, mmm, just give me a quarter of that. That's not the blondie I know.

Kim Commando
Me neither, but we were working on it.

Andrew Babinski
This program is a copyrighted production of.

Kim Commando
Westar multimedia entertainment and protected by the copyright laws.

Andrew Babinski
Any rebroadcast or use of this program for commercial, business, economic or financial purposes.

Kim Commando
Without the written permission of Westar multimedia.

Andrew Babinski
Entertainment is strictly prohibited.

Get Temu off your phone now

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1: Introduction

2: Main Topic - Temu's Risks

3: Community Spotlight - Titan Crawford

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