Ep 163: MALWARE 1) OpenAI o1, a new model that "thinks" 2) DeFi Congressional Hearing and FlowCarbon Refunds 3) Sam Altman's Nose Job

[00:00] Not to be this way, but there was only one woman. I know. They did put her in the front row. Yeah, they made sure. You sit there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right there. Malware is a non-technical look at the tech news of the week. This is a podcast where we learn together about everything from crypto to AI to whatever comes next in tech. I'm Natasha Hoskins. I'm Dina Burke. And this is Boys Club. Wait, is it just Boys Club? It's just Boys Club. [00:26] The Boys Club podcast? No, no. [00:29] Just boy stuff. [00:30] Hey. [00:32] Hello. [00:33] How's it going? Great. We're going to do a malware episode today. We have a bunch of stuff in tech that we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about opening eyes, new baby. We're going to talk about thinking model. Yeah. We're going to talk about DeFi congressional hearing. We're going to talk about a fail DeFi and we're going to end with a fun story. But I do want to say what we're not going to talk about is very important on today's show because I do feel like people have been there's been a saturation around a few things. One, the debate. [01:03] Yeah. We're not touching it. [01:04] On today's podcast. You are free. [01:07] It's the meme where you're... [01:08] shackles yeah we're not gonna talk about the date we're also not gonna talk about the apple event [01:13] No, nothing that interesting. One thing that I did feel like maybe we should cover is like Bitcoin is on base, which I don't really understand. I think that might be inaccurate what I just said. But do you understand what happened? Not enough to just riff on it here. I would. Okay, too bad. Okay, this will be cut. Yeah, we have a really fun episode and a real treat in the end for for boys club.

[01:36] People were in our lane with the last story. And so look forward to it. [01:41] and some quick housekeeping. [01:43] I'm going to Singapore on Monday. [01:46] So next week's episode, one is one that I will be on. And then the second one I won't be on. So I know you guys will miss me, but I'll come back with lots of great stories about my travels. [01:56] Around the world. Mm-hmm. [01:58] promoting... [01:59] and sharing the gospel of coins uh we are doing a couple events in singapore we we the royal we i will not be in singapore but we boys club will be doing a couple events in singapore next week uh so if you're gonna be in town for token 2049 then [02:19] hit us up to come through. We're doing a really fun brunch. [02:23] with our friends at Harpy and also Leather and Alchemy and Serotonin and just gonna be a really great time. And then the other thing I want to do is shout out again [02:34] London next month if you are in London if you're planning to go to London or if you are interested in [02:40] real world use cases for crypto at the stellar meridian conference you should go you should go we have some ticket discounts so hit us up and the lineup looks amazing stripe central ring brazil people talking about how crypto is being used actually right now so [02:57] Really good stuff. Really good stuff. Okay. There it is. [03:02] It's time for a more open, inclusive, and transparent financial system. A system that serves nearly everyone, everywhere, all the time. That's why we love today's sponsor, Kraken. Kraken is a crypto platform that provides a super simple on-ramp to the world of crypto with a 24-7 support team. Crypto transcends physical and imaginary borders. No matter where you are, you can send funds easily and quickly to almost any part of the world. Plus, forget about waiting times and waiting lines. You can send, receive, and trade crypto anywhere near instantly.

[03:31] B at kraken.com backslash boys club, not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss and is offered to us customers through payward interactive Inc. No third party transfers available. [03:43] So OpenAI. Heard of her. [03:46] she did a thing. Ew! [03:51] Ew! [03:53] Yesterday, announced... [03:56] 01. [03:58] a new... [03:59] Model. [04:00] Okay. That... [04:02] can think. [04:03] cool so 4-0 was the last one or something [04:09] 4-0- [04:10] 4-0. So why didn't they name it 5? [04:15] Do you know? I don't. Well, the only thing that I saw around the- It's like a totally new thing. Yeah, exactly. The only thing that I saw around the naming convention was exactly that. We have gone back to the drawing board. [04:25] She's me. Square one. [04:29] Square one. [04:30] okay i do feel yeah you're you're reminding me of four oh [04:35] And we covered that on this podcast a couple months ago. And that at the time felt like a big deal. But now nobody talked about it. This is the big deal. Yeah. They actually showed how stupid 4-0 was pretty publicly and shamingly. [04:50] Oh... [04:51] One, part of its value proposition is that it can solve complex problems that previous versions of the LLM has not been able to solve. It is rolling out to ChatGPT subscribers. Okay. I'm a subscriber. Unfortunately, I have no complex problems to put. I know. I was like, so proofreading the newsletter is going to be fine. Exactly. Yeah. The sort of use cases that they're talking about when they were talking about 401 are like gene sequencing. Oh, oh, wow.

[05:21] Okay. I watched more of a low-key marketing. Like the language stuff? Yeah, the language stuff, math problems, puzzles, like that sort of thing. Yeah. I think what they're hoping it is used for is like in deep research where one of the examples I saw talked about was a Brown. It put a bunch of medical history and records into it and was like, what's cool? Diagnosed problem and coding, [05:51] Thank you. [05:52] can think that's their word. They're using the word think. I saw it abundantly in their marketing material for this release. Another word I'm hearing is reasoning. And basically what it does, it's like, from what I can tell, it like takes a beat. [06:06] Whereas previously, you're putting in a prompt to chat GPT and... [06:10] it's spitting it out immediately and it does it with abandon it's like here's what i know here's my best guess here's my best guess but this one it's like okay here's here's what i think i'm gonna take a beat i'm gonna think about how i answered this question think before you speak exactly one or one or whatever that's its motto [06:31] and [06:33] It does that and there's like a train of thought that it goes through. Okay. And it's like, is this right? I mean, is this the right way to stop me solving this problem? Or have I? [06:42] exhausted all the different ways into answering this question. And then it gives you a response that is by their accounts to be like much more considered and thoughtful and includes this reasoning step and this like thinking step. Okay. One example of this is the strawberry

[06:59] Yes. [06:59] issue i saw this video [07:01] So last week or a couple of weeks ago, there was a thing that went viral, which was like, you ask ChatGPT this question, how many R's? [07:10] "does the word strawberry have?" [07:11] And it was like, it has two R's. [07:13] and it said it like which honestly when i saw it i was like it does have two arms i had to count two i was like s-t-r-a-t-o-k-3 it's got three um so it had been answering it wrong and everyone was like look at this idiot [07:29] - Mm-hmm. - Saying, [07:31] I feel for it. I feel for it. Totally. But this new version of 4.0, [07:37] Says it's got three. Well, one-oh. [07:39] Or one, zero. Oh, one. Zero. Oh, one. [07:43] not a huge marketing team they got there over there no and and that to your point i do think that they're doing some shifting in how their storytelling [07:54] around their product launches now the marketing material for 01. One of the videos was I don't know 20 engineers sitting down having like a group discussion about the research that breakthrough that they had to get to this point and how they're all excited about it. And it wasn't Sam Altman. It wasn't any of the faces or people me or Murati even it was this band of brothers that were talking [08:24] we're going to be showing some other faces other than the people that you maybe have seen and have some preconceived notions about it was like oh man all of those engineers got that calendar invite and they were just like i don't want to do this yeah please don't make me and they're like everybody in conference room b right now yeah yeah yeah um but i i liked it i thought it was really i was impressed with the marketing of it i was like okay this is a whole bunch of nerds i trust these men with my life with my future i actually there's that one video where it's a whole bunch of engineers

[08:54] the breakthrough. And then there's another video where it's, [08:58] the main engineer who's they seem to be really elevating like the beginning of the video i think they're like creator of it or whatever and i didn't realize the strawberry thing had gone viral that was my first exposure to the strawberries mishap and they the very smart of the market teams just head on talk about it control the narrative control the narrative change the narrative and then he talks about why that [09:24] issue was coming up with [09:26] 4.0. And then it's basically like how the... [09:31] LLM like reads language and how it's separated into sections. And this new one, because its ability to think doesn't have to do that. It like can process things more holistically, I guess. And they did a great job explaining something that was very complex. What I was struck by was what a burden it would be. [09:49] to be that smart. [09:51] Like that man is so smart. And what a fucking joke to have to be in this world and be that smart. Like I was just like poor guy. Truly. Oh man. Yeah, that's his cross to bear. And then not only to have to be that smart and to walk around amongst all of us idiots. [10:12] But then to get the calendar invite to say, okay, we're using you for filming this thing. Totally. We need it to get down to tight two minutes. And you need to make it as dumb as possible. And I know from working in media that the person sitting cross from that man is someone like me. Who's like, say it one more time.

[10:33] Try not to say it that way. Say it a different way. But he did a great job. I just need to commend him. Creator of... [10:40] 0 1 is a, I can't remember his name, unfortunately. We'll get there. But anyway, really interesting. Essentially now chat GPT can think. [10:51] So there it is. [10:52] There it is. [10:53] Thank you. [10:55] Hey, Natasha. So a question we get asked a lot is, what do you look for in a crypto platform? So let's talk about it. Well, Dina, I look for a secure, no fuss platform that I can dive into right away. That's why I love today's sponsor, Kraken. If you're waiting for the right time to get into crypto, Kraken makes it super easy and intuitive to get started. Plus, if you get stuck, they have an award-winning client support team that's available 24-7, along with a bunch of educational guides, articles, and videos to help you along the way. If you're ready to check out [11:24] to kraken.com backslash boys club and see what crypto can be not investment advice crypto trading involves risk of loss and is offered to us customers through payward interactive inc [11:36] Okay, we are going to be moving on to the crypto corner of today's show. [11:42] Here we go. And I have two stories to bring to you that are a little bit in conflict with one another. We're going to be talking about a [11:50] congressional hearing that was all about DeFi. Okay. And then we're going to be talking about the big fail in DeFi. So yeah, we're going to start with two things can be true at the same time. They can. They can. Exactly. We can hold two truths and that is a sign of maturity. So the DeFi congressional hearing happened earlier this week and it was held by something called the

[12:20] basically it was kind of framed as education and it was going to be a deep dive into the core concepts of DeFi. Now, these hearings have been happening for a couple of years now. In 2021, 2022, they were also framed as education and it felt as though they were actually education. Like there was... [12:38] People were genuinely asking questions and... [12:41] curious and wanting to learn and trying to understand truly trying to understand and weren't like gunning for sound bites. [12:47] Yeah. This one felt different. Okay. Where people are coming in with their party lines, unfortunately. Agendas. Agendas. Yeah. And trying to get the [12:59] little zinger of a soundbite that they can, I don't know, then use. [13:04] CNN yeah whatever yeah so the lines [13:08] were drawn in fairly predictable ways where the Republicans were [13:14] pro [13:15] And the Democrats were against the anti-crypto sentiment. The party line is... [13:23] if you regulate this industry [13:26] at all. [13:27] you will legitimize it. They're just hoping it goes away. [13:31] okay that's a crazy logic that's crazy logic i agree and their sort of justification for that is that it's [13:40] criminals a lot of talk about tax evasion and sanction evasion as well but there was a there was a lot of chat on tax evasion and billionaires using crypto to basically like wash their funds and to not pay taxes okay maxine waters who is a democrat talked about what you brought up last week about the world liberty financial the hacked accounts of laura and tiffany trump uh their hacked x accounts which were promoting a scam token that was related to world liberty financial

[14:10] guess there was like a 1.8 million dollars that was raised in the moment that those accounts were hacked and so maxine waters used that [14:18] That's so annoying that this has given ammunition to that narrative. So annoying. I know. Okay. [14:25] It has all the ingredients of being something to use in that moment. It's high profile. It's Donald Trump. It's irresponsible for them not to. [14:33] Totally. If that's your agenda, like, [14:35] How could you not? It's right there. Yeah. And then Representative Brad Sherman, who's a Democrat from California. Yeah. What we have here is an effort to liberate billionaires from income taxation. So talking a lot about tax evasion. It could not be me. I've paid so much money. [14:50] in tax on crypto from my crypto stuff i know i i would love honestly to find out how how if anyone has some some tips on how to evade taxes using crypto come on the pod because that has not been my experience that's not my experience we paid fifty thousand dollars in taxes from [15:14] Boys Club did an NFT sale in 2022. [15:18] And we raised 150 ETH from the NFT sale and then paid 50,000 in taxes. So we're the only ones that are paying. If this is an issue, we're the only ones that are paying taxes in this industry. And that sucks. Sucks. That sucks. Okay. So the pro crypto side, you know, we know the argument more transparent, less middleman. There was this line about, you know, someone can't shut down your bank

[15:48] the Canadian Prime Minister, who's that guy? Super hot. [15:51] Justin Trudeau. [15:53] I was about to say Justin Theroux, which I do every single time, but not also hot. I do want to give a huge shout out to Amanda Tuminelli, who's been a guest on this podcast. She was there on the mic. Oh, wow. Yep, yep, yep, yep. She had a she had her moment. She is the chief legal officer of the DeFi Education Fund, and she was there to give testimony. She did an incredible job. And I want you to go watch her clip. [16:23] Traditional finance relies on intermediaries that often serve as gatekeepers to finance. Big banks can and do deny access to the system for discriminatory reasons or no reasons. DeFi is open access. Anyone with an internet connection. So she sang from the hymn book and she did an incredible job. And honestly, songbird. Totally. Such a great asset and face for this industry. And yeah, just happy about that. That's great. Happy to see her there. That's great. Okay. Are there any like... [16:52] next steps or was this just sort of like we're just dog and pony show we're just kind of talking about it okay i think [17:00] Cool. [17:04] Okay, next story here in our crypto corner, flow carbon. My understanding of what flow carbon was, is, was... [17:14] I don't know. - It was, yeah. - An Adam Neumann.

[17:18] project remind us who Adam Newman is [17:20] Adam Newman is the famed infamous founder of WeWork. Mm-hmm. Loves to smoke weed on his private jet. Mm-hmm. Doesn't like to wear shoes. Man, the shoes thing. The shoes thing is weird. Weird guy. Problematic figure, some might say. Mm-hmm. And... [17:39] unlikable too many and had a wildly failed company that he profited from in an inspiring honestly way so that's him he then as all great men do failed [17:57] miraculously upward in a way that is extraordinary to watch. And one of the things that he did next was raise, was a part of this project Flow Carbon that raised an insane amount of money from very reputable venture capital funds. And the idea was to tokenize carbon offsets. A great idea. Like honestly, if it worked, if it had worked, if what they wanted to do had [18:22] been done, it would have been great for the environment. It would have been innovation that excites and it would have used the blockchain to do it. [18:29] There's a whole bunch of things we could talk about how carbon credit, the business of carbon credits and how tokenizing them makes it more efficient and better for the planet and all these things. But that's my understanding of what Flow Carbon is. That's a great, that's a great subnation. So they raised money for the company of Flow Carbon and then they did a token raise.

[18:51] for the token called goddess nature token no gnt not it's can't nope right out of that name i can't i can't nope enough unsubscribe so they raised 38 million for the token [19:07] Then that was separate from their equity raise of the business? There's an equity raise and then there was the token raise. [19:12] And unfortunately... [19:14] The token never launched. [19:17] and there unfortunately it is unfortunate i i do have to disclose that i know the team and [19:26] I know that there was... [19:29] and this is public, but basically [19:31] The timing never felt right for the token launch. There was the 2022... [19:39] crash, [19:40] Fair. I mean... [19:42] fair the timing is not right now there there was a lot of back and forth around the the carbon registry the current system there's like a carbon registry that exists today and i think there was just like a lot of negotiations with that with that registry anyway the token never launched and they have refunded the token holders oh they have they have refunded the token oh wow okay that's crazy so you know i think there's one lens where you can look at the story and it's like [20:12] Yeah. They all are scams and hacks. And then there's another way to look at this, which is like they refunded their token holders. And wow, I did not know that part of the story. A very, very significant because my question kept being what happened to that 30 plus million

[20:25] refunding them. They tried and it didn't work. And that's yeah, I don't know what happens to the equity raise. I don't I don't know. But is the company shuttered? Or is it just like the tokenization of it is no longer? [20:39] I don't think they're in a good spot. [20:41] Yeah, I think that'd be tough. That'd be tough. If your whole thing is, it's a big pivot. It sure is. All of a sudden they're like doing like dry bars around the city or something. [20:53] It's actually co-working spaces. Exactly. [20:57] Man, you hate to see it, but also... [21:00] i don't know we work in an industry and and not only crypto but just like startups where like this is the game like this is the game and this is what people are doing and like you are making big bets and trying big things and a lot of times it doesn't work and if you can't be at peace with that you can't be in the game of it yeah so that's a really generous that's a really generous take all right i think part of the spectacle around the story is just how hateable adam newman is and that he is [21:30] easy target to do a takedown around i actually don't know that he was at all operational in flow carbon i don't think he was i once sat next to a guy who worked there and he um i don't think you know this guy it's not he wasn't i don't think it was very high up and he was like you can stop by the office anytime and meet adam newman and i was like [21:49] You thinking that that [21:52] is cool and i don't think that's true though i don't think he was in the office

[21:58] He was like, his family office is across the hall from our office. Oh, yeah. [22:03] So I was like, OK, so I'll be across the hall from the office that I'm new and might possibly be in, and that's how you're hitting on me? [22:10] I have notes, my friend. I have some notes. [22:14] anyway so I don't think he was operational all that to say yeah [22:18] Anyway, that's that. Anyway, okay. Great. Thanks for the briefing. [22:23] . [22:27] Okay, final story here. [22:30] This is a good one. So earlier this week, [22:33] sweet Parker, who we love. Parker J. Patriot. Just the best. She's the best. Posted something in our Discord. [22:39] that honestly [22:41] It's a story that only Boys Club could cover. It's uniquely suited for our team. [22:49] The hard fork guys can't touch this. [22:51] No way, not with a 10 foot pole. They don't have the credibility. [22:54] Okay, so Parker posted, I think Sam Altman got a nose job question mark and then a photo of him. [23:03] And I do want to say the ensuing conversation is... [23:09] Whether he gets a nose job or he doesn't get a nose job, it's totally like... [23:13] We supportive supportive of you get to choose what you do to your own body. It is not at all in any way shaming if he did decide to get a nose job. [23:21] then [23:22] i support him that's i support him if he didn't decide to get a nose job his nose is perfect anyway i support him i support i support any moment i support anyone's

[23:34] anyone's decision to do anything with their body so i do want to caveat by saying we're not shaming him at all and we're also like not celebrating that here whatever it is just it's neutral it's totally neutral [23:44] I will say, I just want to add another layer onto this. Parker, she said two things. One, [23:50] In quotes, Tether is more profitable than BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, by 700 million. The largest stablecoin provider bagged 6.2 billion last year. [24:00] Period. [24:01] Two, I think Sam Altman got a nose job photo. [24:07] that's our lane that's our lane summed up i just have to say a few things about this one i could potentially at this point with the amount of videos that i've watched about [24:17] what people have done on their face. [24:20] could be [24:22] A plastic surgeon. I'm an MD. You're a board-certified dermatologist at this point. I'm a board-certified, 100%. 100%. I went out to drinks with a friend last week. [24:31] And I have gotten so good at this that I was like, [24:35] Hey! [24:36] Have you gone to no shop? [24:37] And she was like, yeah, whoa, in high school. How did you spot that? And I'm like, I can see it now. I can look at someone's face. Okay, rhinoplasty, juve a look, Botox, lip flip. That's me. I can do it. And I love it. I think it's, I'm like, that's wonderful. You look beautiful. Like, wow. [24:57] good for you and also we're beautiful to start with every human is perfectly made in god's image so it's not it's no 100 i love sarah jessica parker's nose i think it's perfect she should not touch it she never should you want to know who else has a perfect nose the girl in industry

[25:10] Perfect. Perfect nose. Perfect nose. [25:12] Anyway, [25:13] I support whatever people want, however, whatever is going to make people feel good. [25:17] Feeling good about how you are as you are? Feeling good by doing something else? Go for it. [25:21] Thank you. [25:22] Sam Altman has had a nose job. Okay. He has no question in my mind. [25:29] Not one question. I think he might also be hitting... [25:32] I think he also might be hitting the filler. And this was another comment that was left in that [25:38] thread, which was... [25:40] If I were going on a world tour trying to take over the world, the U.S. government and fundraise, I would look smacks too. And to that I say amen. I would as well. I would as well. If I knew my face was... [25:53] going to be photographed from every angle and put everywhere? You have to. [25:57] Yeah, you would feel. I would have to, I guess, is a better way of saying it. There it is. I would. I would have to. So I'm proud of him. I'd love to know who did it. It looks like pretty good work. [26:07] And so I support. I support. I stand with someone's nose. [26:12] Oh, great. [26:15] Great stuff. Great stuff. That's that.