Ep. 86: Feelings Check-in. 1) 101 on AI wearables 2) Cringe personal feelings on building a personal brand

[00:00] When you first started talking, Sam, all I could hear is the Great British Bake Off, and it's AI wearables week here at the Great British Bake Off. [00:09] Welcome to The Feelings Tracking, a feelings first look at the news of the week. Takes no one asked for on topics everyone's talking about. I'm Natasha Hoskins. I'm Dina Burke. And this is Boys Club. Wait, is it just Boys Club? It's just Boys Club. The Boys Club podcast? No. [00:27] Just boys club. [00:28] Hi. Hey, welcome to the feelings check-in. This is a special feelings check-in. Is it? Because it's like an interview feelings check-in. Yeah. And it's an interview feelings check-in with someone who's a friend. Yeah, it was really fun to record. We had Samantha Stevens [00:43] On to explain the AI wearables trend. The moment. That kicked off this past week. [00:53] Launched at Paris Fashion Week. [00:56] Yeah, she is a founder of an AI startup. She's incredibly credible and very smart and writes our hallucinations newsletter, which is our weekly newsletter on AI and what's happening today. [01:10] There. [01:12] Whatever's happening there. So it was really fun. It was a great conversation. What I really liked about it is Sam made it very accessible. Extremely accessible. And I really appreciate that. So that's the first half of the episode. And as ever on the feelings check-in, the second half of the episode is... [01:27] on our... [01:28] personal

[01:30] feelings around our life and our work and [01:34] the internet. So we talk a little bit about building a personal brand and the cringe of it all. [01:41] Okay, stick around. Hey, Natasha, if someone wants to get into crypto or is looking for a better way to trade, where should they go? Oh, Dina, I'm so glad you asked. The place to be is Kraken. It's more than a crypto platform. Kraken is your bridge to the new world of finance, a simple, [02:04] use. From degen to day trader, first timer to full timer, make your trades in just a few clicks. Go to kraken.com backslash boys club, sign up in just a few minutes, and you can even get started with as little as $10. We love you, Kraken. [02:17] Very excited about today's guest. We have Samantha Stevens on the podcast today, friend of the pod, friend of us, writer of our podcast. [02:27] Wednesday newsletter on AI called Hallucinations, also founder of an AI startup name not yet disclosed. So welcome to the show, Sam. Hi, great to be here. This is so funny and formal. [02:41] to have Sam on because we're all such good friends and Sam is a core DAO member and has seen us at our best and at our worst. So let's hope today is the latter. We're so excited to have you on and so grateful for a Hail Mary pass that we sent you today to explain to us what the fuck is going on. So want to start with just could you give us a lay of the land?

[03:09] on what is happening with AI wearables. [03:12] in the news a lot right now and want to have sort of some context for what's going on. Yes. Okay. So last week was randomly AI wearable week where there was four [03:22] separate, unrelated, wearable, [03:24] launches that all happened at the same time. [03:27] So the first one was at none other than Paris Fashion Week, [03:33] where Naomi Campbell, [03:34] walk down the runway wearing this new pin, let's call it. It's like this little square name tag shaped thing. Lapel pin style. Yeah. Lapel pin style. Yeah. That is by this company called [03:50] Humane. Humane was co-founded by two former Apple design executives and they left the company and it's like super mysterious. They did one Ted talk on it last year. [04:03] TED or TEDx? [04:04] Unclear. Gina has a prejudice against TEDx speakers. Anyway, okay, so TED, let's call it a TED Talk. So they do this TED Talk, and the goal is to replace your smartphone. That's their goal. And so it has this, like, projector that comes out of the... [04:23] button or whatever it is that you can project onto your hand. And it shows this little user interface on your hand, phone call or a text message. And then it has a camera and a speaker. And that's all the details we know. They're like, we're releasing more details on November 9th. So, okay. We've marked our calendars.

[04:40] A few days later, Meta had their, an annual conference. They launched their next version of their Ray-Ban glasses, which I didn't even know they had a first version, but now we have AI enabled that also feature a camera. I think it connects to your smartphone, but you can also, there's also a speaker built into the glasses. And so you can like converse with their AI chatbot or something like that. With Mark Zuckerberg, you can be in communicado with him. [05:10] - The President and the President, the President, [05:10] to just tell them what groceries you need in your fridge or something. And then, so the third thing was this Twitter battle royale kind of broke out with two AI startups. [05:22] So, [05:23] The first was this guy who [05:26] He's a builder, was famous for building like an early COVID tracking dashboard. And kind of that was like his rise to, you know, tech fame or whatnot. He released this video showing this necklace, like a pendant that goes to your neck. It's like this little circle thing that is this. [05:45] always on camera and speaker that is recording everything that you experience throughout your day and then stores it on your phone with the goal of like helping on I don't really know what the goal is, I guess, like helping you remember. [06:01] things are just like have this kind of ever present [06:05] AI recording of your life and people you met in conversations, which will be great for like conferences, honestly, because who knows who remembers who. It's just a live stream of me crying. It's like you cried. That's what you did today.

[06:19] 2.13 p.m. Another tear. [06:22] Cry log. [06:24] So this guy posted this video on X. [06:27] and like posted this presale [06:30] link. I don't know if it was a GoFundMe or like some sort of pre-sale link to... GoFundMe? A GoFundMe? [06:37] It was like a pre-sale type of thing, right? Okay. So then like... [06:41] 12 hours later, this other company called Rewind [06:46] who their current app is a system that sits on your computer [06:51] and records everything that happens on your screen, and then like stores that so you can like search back through all of your [06:59] files or podcasts that you've done or whatever it is you've done on your screen with the mission of giving humans perfect memory. So then that company came out suddenly 12 hours after this other company released their, their necklace. [07:13] with their own rewind pendant, which is basically the exact same thing of this thing that like you wear around your neck that records everything that happens and then stores it so you can search back through it and, and find things. And so those two founders got into this Twitter war. [07:28] Because they're like, why did this company 12 hours after this other guy launched this thing come out with like a direct competitor? Did they just whip that up? Were they sitting on it? Who knows? So anyway, that's what happened last week in... [07:40] wearable week in the the great a ton of questions i'm not fully understanding the ai and in all of them honestly well the meta one seems to be fairly straightforward because that's

[07:49] chatbots and so that one I kind of get. But the first one and these other two that just spun up, [07:55] What's the AI component in these? [07:57] So the AI component is that it takes the recording of what actually happened. It uses AI to A, summarize it, and then B, be able to search back to find like a previous recording. Apple F. Exactly. Apple F. Okay. Is it creating your own personal LLM? [08:17] so that it's knowing the way that you talk and the way that you, [08:21] Right. And can customize responses because it knows you so well. Is that the point? That's not what I've read in any of these initial value points. [08:31] Propositions, I can certainly see companies going in that direction to [08:36] you know, "Oh, respond to my husband" differently than respond to [08:41] Dina. So it seems like a lot of the value proposition that you've talked through with a few of these is... [08:47] memory. [08:48] And refining and perfecting [08:51] human memory through these wearables that support that, that seems crazy to me. I'm just like, what are we doing here? I totally agree. This has always stuck with me in my head. I was watching, uh, who was the guy that was like Oprah's friend? That was, um, um, [09:08] Did it start with an M? [09:09] He was bald. I don't know. Dr. Phil. Oh, classic. He's the OG. And he was interviewing this woman who had perfect memory. There's a disorder where you remember everything. And she...

[09:24] remembered everything that happened to her in her life. Horrible. And it was so traumatic. It was not good. And it was very traumatizing. And, [09:34] It's like there's a reason that our bodies are like we can let... [09:39] some stuff go. [09:40] So I'm very reminded of that when I'm listening to you talk about perfect human memory. I'm like, well... [09:46] I don't know. I don't know that we need to keep all of it. Yeah. So I think the wearables that have cameras [09:52] I see a lot more of the potential use cases where you can be looking at something. Like, imagine if you were traveling in another country and you were looking at a... [10:03] sign or a menu and it would like translate that in your [10:06] or on your phone or wherever. Or one of the examples that one of the companies talked about is like you can [10:12] look at what's in your fridge and it can like automatically make a shopping list for you and stuff like that. Giving it eyes, I think that's really [10:20] Interesting. [10:21] I think the audio only [10:24] Part... [10:25] Begs the question of okay, so we're just recording everything that everybody says what could possibly go wrong, right? [10:34] Also, I don't think it's legal. I don't think that that's legal. So that's been the immediate Twitter reaction. Because other people aren't consenting. So these... [10:43] two companies are saying oh we have [10:46] baked in consent where it only records if [10:50] you consent to it. One example that one of the founders posted of how they might achieve that

[10:58] promise is like a voice consent, similar to how you say like, [11:03] Hey Google or Hey Siri to like turn it on and wake it up. And my Siri just woke up doing a similar thing. Like, do you give consent to be recorded right now? And it says like, [11:13] you have to say yes or something like that. And then maybe like a light turns on that. That's insane. Yeah. [11:19] It's really insane. It's a little insane, right? Oh, yes. Also, like, if you've ever listened for any other people who have podcasts, if you've ever listened to. [11:29] just one side of audio. [11:31] It's so embarrassing. You're like, I'm a fucking idiot. Because it's just, there's no context for the conversation. So all of these four companies are just going to give people... [11:41] all the evidence in the world to be like, I have absolutely zero social skills. It's crazy. It's crazy. Imagine playing back like every... No, I can't. I can't even imagine. Oh my gosh. I can't think of anything worse. Aeropolis are about to get so rich. [11:58] Okay. So as someone who's like building in this space, who thinks about this technology every single day, what's your feeling around it? I know that there's probably a mixed bag, but I feel like you're on the liberal side of... [12:10] this technology and seeing it as a positive and useful and good thing in the world. So I'm curious what your take is on these. I would say I'm on a moderate side where I see a lot of like... [12:21] really big risks in some applications, but it's so broad that we'll have to see [12:27] For this in particular,

[12:29] my [12:30] gut reaction is this is a police state. Nothing good can come out of this sort of surveillance and like all of these [12:38] icky feelings. [12:40] But then I also question, like, it's very easy for an initial MVP, like the first [12:46] AI wearable to launch to seem so jarring and terrible and weird or not have the right use case or product market fit or anything like that. And I'm like trying to be open-minded and say, okay, maybe 10 years from now, things will look very different and be much better. You know, I think you can say the same about like crypto, right? It's very easy to take a technology and apply it for nefarious use cases and. [13:11] focus on the scammers or the money launderers or whatever, but there's, that doesn't mean that there's not positive applications and benefits in the world. And so I'm trying to be [13:20] open-minded. I personally will not be buying or verbally consenting to any of the, uh, [13:26] these pendant necklaces recording me, but I'm intrigued to see where the industry goes from here. How much do you think Naomi Campbell got paid for the product placement on the runway? Okay, so I read about this. [13:39] No. Oh, I don't know how much she got paid, but the brand is Kopriani and they're the same fashion house that did Bella Hadid's painted dress. [13:47] Do you remember that? It kind of. Yeah. Oh, incredible. She came out of the runway in nothing on basically. And then they painted on a dress on her live on the runway. And then it became a fabric.

[14:01] They either partnered with or created this material that can be manipulated and then dries, basically, to become an actual dress. And then they put a little slit on it, and then she walked down the runway. It's amazing. So anyway, I think that this fashion house is into sort of... [14:16] Emerging technology, if you will. We should find them and bring them on the pod. But I don't think she got paid. I think it was like part of her look. Do you know, Sam? Here's what I would say. This company has raised like $250 million or something like that. So they certainly have... [14:32] a ton of money. These were like very high profile [14:36] folks in the design space. [14:38] And maybe they were just friends. [14:40] Like maybe they're just in the same design, creative social circles. And Naomi did this as a [14:46] as a fun little favor. So I could see it going, going that way. I love calling her Naomi. I know it's so more, she's going to just come hang out. We're going to have a drink. Okay, great. I feel much more at peace. Well, I guess not at all at peace, actually much more informed. If you had to put your money on one of the four, [15:05] If you were to be on one cap table, who would you choose? Oh, man. [15:07] That's very interesting. One interesting take that I will add that I think is-- [15:12] Absolutely fascinating. I was reading an [15:14] Axios article, I'll send it to you guys, is that [15:18] the companies who are most [15:20] incentivized to create new powerful wearables in the big tech world. [15:27] are the ones that don't have smartphones. [15:30] So Meta, failed smartphone, Amazon,

[15:34] open AI who's rumored to be pursuing a new hardware thing, right? Because they're thinking, [15:40] Google and Apple [15:42] have a duopoly on the smartphone market, how do we, you know, invent a new type of technology that can generate a different revenue stream and make people less tied to their smartphones? And so I thought that was a very interesting take on a- That's interesting. Maybe humane or one of these other ones. Right. So my answer to that is I could see a world where like Facebook is backing [16:05] humane or like they invest. [16:07] in that technology or Amazon does. And I think open AI already did. And I know that they've been [16:12] rumored to be pursuing their own [16:15] wearable with another Johnny Ives. OpenAI? Yeah. And Johnny Ive? OpenAI, Johnny Ive, and SoftBank are rumored to be exploring a hardware market. [16:25] I want to be on that cap table. I would be on that cap table too. [16:29] Who is Johnny Ive? [16:31] Is this embarrassing that I don't know who this is? No, it's okay. He was the former head of design of Apple, Steve Jobs' counterpart on the design, the iPhone. So he's responsible for my addiction. [16:42] He's the man to... [16:44] to DM. Okay, Sam, where can people find you? Oh, you can find me on [16:50] x on twitter um at sam j stevens you can find me on linkedin under linkedin she's a linkedin baby you gotta be sass man you gotta you gotta be on it link in show notes sam's a great follow she also has another newsletter where she gives you ai tips and it's not annoying so that's a huge w for sam sam thank you so much for coming on so fun to chat and um

[17:18] Yeah, work on your verbal consent. [17:23] Kraken is a crypto OG. They have more than 10 million clients around the world that trust them with their crypto needs. They're one of the largest crypto platforms out there with some of the highest security standards in the industry. So you can rest easy that your funds and your privacy are safe for the keeping. And if you need help along the way, as we all do sometimes, Kraken's award winning client support team is available 24-7 every day of the year. [17:53] so nice and so patient. It just takes a few minutes to get started today at kraken.com backslash boys club. [17:59] Okay, so personal feelings. Let's fucking go. Personal feelings. I'm having a personal feeling that feels hard to talk about. [18:06] And [18:07] also unsure of [18:11] I'm feeling... [18:12] received already for how I'm going to come across... [18:17] it's so meta man this one's layered this is is very layered so i'm just gonna go for it and then we can just edit out what we need but basically this is the feeling that i'm having [18:28] I'm seeing that... [18:30] as we're building a media company, [18:32] It's really powerful if you and I... [18:35] also have our own personal brands. [18:37] And I see it. [18:39] in... [18:40] The work I see it in our sales meetings. I see it in partnership conversations that like it or not reluctantly. [18:48] We --

[18:50] are the face of boys club. [18:52] and I have... [18:54] No social following. I have like 2000 people who follow me on Twitter. I'm not an influencer. I do not have. [19:02] A personal brand. [19:03] A public personal brand. And I had a Instagram. It was hacked. Yeah. [19:10] And Instagram deleted it. And... [19:12] The shackles have been removed. I am free. This happened like a year and a half ago. And it's been so nice. [19:19] So nice. And now with boys club and with boys club growing and like, [19:25] They're starting to be... [19:26] this. [19:27] business that's formed around it as a media entity. Right. [19:31] I am feeling this pressure. [19:33] to build my own personal brand. [19:36] and to have thoughts and opinions and all of these things displayed in [19:41] to [19:43] Support. [19:44] Boys Club. And to support... [19:46] Truly like my livelihood, like being invited to be on panels, being invited to conferences, like asked to... [19:56] be in shoots and be on podcasts. And like, that's our job right now. And my social following in many ways, personal social following does not justify that. It doesn't. And like, I feel like I need to catch up. Like I need to justify. Yeah. Yeah. [20:13] myself in the situation that we've gotten ourselves in to like grow our business and yeah to give myself personally as many opportunities as I can professionally I am having an insane creative block because of it

[20:33] where I feel like all I'm doing these days is staring so close to my phone and saying, be funny, be smart. And it's not happening. [20:46] And the freedom that we have had with Boys Club [20:52] accounts is that we are [20:55] totally and completely have previously been totally and completely sort of anonymous in the boys club universe and account. And it used to be like fun only tweet, whatever the fuck you want, say whatever you want. And now that has changed. We can't be as free. We have partners, we have responsibilities, we have revenue and that's great. And it's only possible if that all happens, but because of that, it affects those channels and, uh, [21:24] I... [21:25] have to be creative for this job. Like actually that is a requirement. My personal brand, maybe not a requirement, but like being funny and being creative on the social channels of, and other channels of boys club is literally our jobs. And like, I am blocked now. [21:39] totally and completely. There's nothing funny happening in me. There's nothing smart happening. And that's the feeling. The other feeling that comes up for me around it as well is like, [21:51] I'm spending so much time online, more time online than I have in my whole life ever. And it's funny and fun and I love it. But as you start to think about... [22:01] your own personal brand and trying to think about like, how do I be strategic about this?

[22:06] All I'm starting to feel is I... [22:09] feel this intense need to be funnier or be hotter or be more thoughtful. Like all of these things that the internet shows you the content that works. [22:19] and it's in my head. It's completely in my head. And the last thing I'll say and then I'll shut up is like, [22:27] I am [22:29] Not an insecure person. [22:31] Like in the world, I don't, I, in, in the world, I can be at peace with people not liking me. I can be at peace with not thinking about, [22:39] positive things about me. I'm like, that's the way of the world, but it feels different online. And I'm like, I want people to think, I want people to like me. And there's something about it because it's like, this could be broadcast to anyone. This could be seen by anyone instead of being in reality with real people and being like, well, I don't like them either. You can't, I don't have the same like padding. [23:01] around it that's my feeling wow [23:07] You're really wound up. I'm really, really wound up. You're really wound up. I feel the same way. There was just a lot that you said. So I'm going to try and break it down. One... [23:19] Building a personal brand and the pressure and... [23:22] obligation around that and also insecurity about like how and what the expression of the personal brand is. Two, [23:30] Being creative on call with Boys Club. [23:34] And the voice club brand and having to be funny on demand.

[23:37] Because we have 15 minutes to get a meme out the door each day during our standup. [23:42] And that being... [23:44] not ideal conditions for creativity. Yes. That's two. [23:49] 3 [23:50] Being online too much. [23:52] And... [23:53] I really relate to that one especially because it's... [23:57] the online world is, [24:00] What's there is... [24:04] Obviously the dopamine hits on like humor and like, [24:08] information and the sort of, you know, [24:13] Thank you. [24:14] There's the dopamine around that, but also beyond that, it's opportunity. Yeah. Like the more that you're putting out. [24:21] And the more that you're sort of understanding about online culture and the more that you're putting out around it, in and around it, is just opportunity for Boy Scope as a brand. And I suppose by extension, you personally. And then the fourth one is just a feeling of wanting to be liked. [24:34] and the [24:36] how that feels... [24:38] magnified. [24:40] when it's online because there's no context. The context collapses happen so quickly. And I don't even know if it's like, [24:48] wanting to be liked. Like I actually, [24:52] Wanting to be respected. [24:54] Um, [24:56] wanting to be interesting. Like I'm fine if actually people think I'm offensive. [25:02] in a not cancel me kind of way or [25:05] out there or edgy or even annoying. I'm actually fine with any of those. I just don't want to. Okay. That seems like there's a lot of room there. I mean, I'd prefer that people think this bitch is hilarious and right.

[25:19] But being perceived as trying is like really embarrassing. [25:24] Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's what I don't want. It's not actually like, yeah, it's like, wow, she's a tryhard. That would be, it's hard to balance. [25:33] being perceived as trying and trying. I know. I get it. I think that also the reason why it feels so present is I feel like an urgency around it because I feel behind in some way with where Boys Club is and I'm [25:53] in terms of... [25:54] are. [25:55] our cultural reach doesn't feel reflected in some of these numbers that, um, [25:59] We have. And I believe that's really true. And so [26:03] I feel like I have to get caught up before I'm found out or something, which is like so stupid. Anyway, what do you feel? I'm having a hangover proactively already. [26:14] Oh, really? I don't think it's that bad. I don't think you said anything that I think it's totally fine. Yeah, I do not consent to being perceived. And so much so that I sent out my tweet yesterday. [26:29] That was a joke about Mitski and being bisexual. And it was just... The joke was that it was so specific, but also applied to so many women that... Whatever. It's not that serious. It doesn't matter. And I got... [26:44] A couple of DMs, a couple of texts, people were commenting on the bisexuality thing. And I'm like, guys, I am being perceived as someone who is caring in that moment about that. And I do not. And it's on them. It's not on me. And I don't know how to put that into a tweet where it's like, if you don't get it, that's on you.

[27:04] And it's, it's not my problem. So I totally relate to that. [27:09] I totally relate to that. Like, there was a moment yesterday I was like, should I send that tweet or should I not send that tweet? And I was like... [27:14] Who cares? [27:15] And I do think that that's true. And I do think you have that. You can tap into that. I totally. Yes, I agree. It's there. I think what I'm experiencing is previously. [27:24] I have felt an ease in tapping into... [27:27] Who cares? Like I care about these people on Twitter. No, I don't. [27:32] And then all of a sudden my livelihood got wrapped up in it. And I'm like, I care. Totally. I care about my livelihood. And it's now intertwined. And the entanglement of those two things has changed. [27:44] not only blocked me creatively, but like it's taking up mental space and it's driving me crazy. [27:50] You hate to see it also because I can't help but think that the work suffers as a result. The work totally suffers. The only way... [27:58] to deliver on funny and subversive and weird and odd internet stuff is to not care. And when you start caring... [28:06] And when you start having feeling like you have obligations, it's... [28:09] it taints the art of it. My offering to God is tainted. I think that this has been a helpful conversation though, because I can actually, the like, [28:20] Who am I actually concerned? [28:22] It's going to be like, wow, this person's a tryhard. Who is that actually? And when I'm really sitting down and thinking about it, I do not care. Great. You need to bottle that. I need it too. I need to bottle it and like. Put it inside my veins. Sometimes. Yeah. Okay. That's what it is. Thanks for listening.

[28:39] Bye. [28:43] . [28:44] There it is. That's Boys Club. We have two podcasts, two online, where we talk about internet culture and this podcast where we report on some Web3 or emerging tech story and then talk about our feelings, the feelings check-in. So thank you for listening. Please like, subscribe, share, send to your friends. Anything else? That's it. Thank you so much. [29:08] I'm closing more tabs. We're going, we're going nuclear. I'm so sorry to do that to you. The tabs are. If they're meant to be, they'll come back. [29:16] If you love something, let it go. [29:18] laughter