Transcription
The Joe Rogan Experience.
A lot of the stuff that was going on with the strikes was centered around AI and what AI is going to do to the business. Like, what, where do you feel is going to be like the biggest problem with AI? Is it going to be with people's likenesses? Because there's a lot of that where they want, they want to use extras and own their digital rights forever, essentially be able to recreate them in any kind of film. But then there's also, you're going to have films that are written by artificial intelligence. You're going to have scenes that don't involve people. And it gets weird, right?
It gets really weird, but there's actually an area for him.
Yeah. We've been spending time looking at this. Like, my belief is it's sort of like what's going to happen with electricity.
Well, a lot of shit's going to happen with electricity. Some of it's going to be good. Some of it's going to change stuff. Some of it's going to be like, you know, this is going to be, you know, [ __ ] that kills a bunch of people. Like, it's, it's, it's opening a door that you can't, um, you know, say, well, talk about in a kind of a blanket way. But I think with what I see is like, for example, if you try to get ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini to write you something, it's really shitty. And it's shitty because by its nature, it goes to the mean, to the average, and it's, and it's not reliable. And it's, I mean, I just can't even stand to see what it writes now. It's a useful tool if you're a writer and you're going, "What's the? I'm trying to set something up where somebody sends someone a letter, but it's delayed two days and gets," and it can give you some examples of that. I actually don't think it's very likely that it can, it's going to be able to write anything meaningful or, and in particular, that it's going to be making movies like from whole cloth, like, "Tilly Nor." Like that's [ __ ] I don't think that's going to happen. I think it's not, I think it actually, it turns out the technology is not progressing in exactly the same way they sort of presented it. Um, and really, what it is, is going to be a tool, just like sort of visual effects. And yeah, it needs to have language around it. You need to protect your name and likeness. You can do that. You can watermark it. Your, those laws already exist. You can't, I can't sell your [ __ ] picture for money. I can't. You can sue me. Period. I might have the ability to draw you, to make you in a very realistic way, but that's already against the law. And the unions are going to, I think the guilds are going to manage this where it's like, "Okay, look, if this is a tool that actually helps us, for example, we don't have to go to the North Pole, right? We can shoot the scene here in our parkas and, you know, whatever it is, and but then make it appear very realistically as if we're in the North Pole. Save us a lot of money, a lot of time. We're going to focus on the performances and not be freezing our ass up out there and running back inside." That's useful, just like Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn used to be like driving their car and there's a wind blowing a painting behind them and look goofy. And, you know, now, you know, in computer, people use a lot of computer-generated stuff. And some of it is going to replace just that. Like instead of, uh, 500 guys in Singapore, you know, making $2 an hour to, to render all the graphics for a superhero movie, there's going to be able to do that a lot easier. There's already laws around and guild guidelines around, like how many union extras you have to use. But also, we've been tiling extras. Like there weren't a million orcs in Middle Earth, you know what I mean? There aren't, Invictus, there weren't all those people in the stadium. Like that's something we've been doing. It kind of feels to me like the thing we were talking about earlier, where there's a lot more fear because we have the sense, this existential dread. It's going to wipe everything out.
But that actually runs counter, in my view, to what history seems to show, which is adoption is slow. It's incremental. Um, I think a lot of that rhetoric comes from people who are trying to justify valuations around companies where they go, "We're going to change everything in two years. There's going to be no more work."
Well, the reason they're saying that is because they need to ascribe a valuation for investment that can warrant the capex spend they're going to make on these data centers with the argument that like, "Oh, you know, as soon as we do the next model, it's going to scale up. It's going to be three times as good." Except that actually, GPT-5 is about 25% better than GPT-4 and costs about four times as much in the way of electricity and data. So, that's like plateauing. The early AI, the line went up very steeply and it's now sort of leveling off. I think it's because, and yes, it'll get better, but it's going to be really expensive to get better. And a lot of people were like, "Fuck this. We want GPT-4." Because it turned out like the vast majority of people who use AI are using it to like, as like companion bots to chat with at night and stuff. There's no work, there's no productivity, there's no value to it. I would argue there's also not a lot of social value to getting people to like focus on an AI friend who's, you know, telling you that you're great and listening to everything you say and being sycophantic. But that's sort of a side issue. I think for this particular purpose, like the way I see the technology and what it's good at and what it's not, it's going to be good at filling in all the places that are expensive and burdensome and they make it harder to do it. And it's always going to rely fundamentally on the human artistic aspects of it. Well, I think the more it becomes ubiquitous, the more people are going to appreciate real things that are made by real people. You know, like, you're, you still appreciate a handmade table, you know, you're, you're gonna appreciate like, did you see, um, uh, "The Beast in Me," Claire Danes?
Yeah.
No, I didn't. [ __ ] great.
Yeah, I heard it was great.
That lady. Woo.
It's terrific.
Woo. When she's in a scene, you're just like, "Jesus Christ. Like, great."
Like, you like her [ __ ] lips are quivering. Like you believe everything that she's saying.
But you're right. People want that.
I say like, I, I did this interview with, uh, with Dwayne Johnson because they, you know, they, when people are in these awards things, they sometimes have other actors interview them, you know. And I did this interview with Dwayne and and and I asked him, there's this scene in "The Smashing Machine" where, where he's overdosed on drugs and his buddy comes to see him in the hospital.
Yeah.
And and it really walloped me, this scene. I thought it was so great. And and I asked him, and I was just like, "Can you just tell me about this scene? Like, did Benny, Benny Safdie directed it? Did Benny write this, write that? Did you work on that scene with them? Did you?" He goes, "No, we, we actually worked on it together." And I go, "But how did that scene come to be?" And Dwayne goes, "Well, my father was an alcoholic, and I don't remember if he said substance abuse or alcoholic, but I didn't know the man. I don't want to impute him, but, but he had, he had a substance issue, whatever it was." He goes, "And and when he would talk to me, uh, you know, that's how he would defend himself. It was almost a bargaining thing." Cuz there's this thing when this guy comes to him, he's overdosed, and Dwayne's amazing in this scene. He's, he's going like, he's going like, "Yeah, isn't it crazy?" And then I woke up and thought, I mean, I could hear him, but I couldn't really hear him. And you see him, and he's kind of tap dancing. And his friend finally kind of holds his feet to the fire.
And at that moment, Dwayne
literally starts to burst into tears and just pulls the hospital sheet up over his head. And it's like, and it's, and it's, I mean, it's just, it was, I'm, I'm not doing it justice if you haven't, I mean, I know you see, I know you've seen it.
But, um, he said, yeah, so he explains that about his father. And then he goes,
and and, uh, when my mom was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer, I was with her when the oncologist came in and she was lying in the hospital bed. And when he gave her the news, she pulled the sheet up over her head. And I looked at her and she just looked like a little, like a little kid, you know? And I was like, "All right." Like, so that right is two traumatic events from this guy's life, right? From his life experience. And the actor in him, right, sees this scene, goes into his memory, pulls these two things out, understands that they're appropriate for this scene, and he can marry them together in the scene, and then he goes and performs it that way. And a dude walking in off the road, goes to the movies, sees this, understands somehow that it's [ __ ] real. I, I didn't know why. I, that's why I wanted to ask him how did that scene come to be. I genuinely didn't know.
And made me tear up. And, you know, like that is
there's no [ __ ] AI that can do that.
It's the whole lot more than photorealistic images.
Yeah. You, you could, you could, you could have an AI understand Dwayne's face and move his face into different. No [ __ ] thing could ever do that. The complications of real life experiences relayed.
That is a completely human. That is an, that is an artist. That's a piece of art, right? That comes out of a lived human experience.
NFL playoffs, let's go. DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL, makes every moment feel bigger. Postseason games shift fast. And with DraftKings live betting options, you can stay right in the moment. Plus, DraftKings has your back with early exit protection. If the player in your eligible NFL prop bet goes down at any point in the first half, you still get paid in cash. New customers bet just $5. And if the bet wins, you get 300 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use the code Rogan. That's code Rogan to turn five bucks into 300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.
Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. In New York, call 877-8-WIRE or text OPEN467-369. In Connecticut, call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Bootill Casino and Resort in Kansas. Pass-through of per wager tax may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in 7 days. Minimum odds required. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkg.co/audio. Limited time offer.