Welcome to the
On the Dumbest
timeline
We go through the
longest timeline
Is this truly the
dumbest timeline
What's up everyone?
Welcome to another
edition of The
Dumbest Timeline.
I'm your host,
Brian Holidae,
and this episode is
dedicated to my
family.
It's dedicated to my
aunt who passed away
and
it's dedicated to my
cousins that I got
to see that I
haven't seen in a
long time
And don't worry,
I'm fine.
The pauses are me
trying not to give
in to that
really strong
emotion that comes
with remembering
someone you've lost,
but also
celebrating the
relationship that
got stronger
It's it's such an
unfortunate silver
lining type thing to
lose a loved one.
And then
spend time with your
family that you
haven't spent time
with for years,
years.
I mean,
there's a cousin
that when he dropped
me off at the
airport,
joked,
I hope it's not
another 20 before we
see each other.
And I
I thought in my head
at the time I was
just like,
oh,
so that hasn't been
20 years.
And then I thought
back to the last
time I saw him that
I could remember
seeing him,
and he wasn't wrong.
It was pretty much
20 years ago.
And you're probably
wondering,
what does this have
to do with?
I
Well,
I'll go back because
this this is
almost a weird
kismet situation.
So the last episode
I was gonna do,
I had planned to
talk about how I
specifically I
wanted to talk about
AI in the medical
sphere.
So I was going to
reach out to a
doctor friend of
mine,
and I was doing some
research on AI as it
pertained to medical
research and things
like that.
I found these
articles about early
detection for breast
cancer and all these
fantastic things
that I was just
like,
wow,
you know,
as much as I
artificial
intelligence as we
are using it now is
problematic in
creative spaces,
it's problematic in
other spaces.
They're misusing it,
they're abusing it.
They're taking
advantage of the
popularity and the
fame and the idea of
AI and and throwing
that around with
beings that aren't
even
AI and claiming it
to be AI and
essentially
misrepresenting in a
way that is
disrespectful,
in my opinion,
to the essence and
the idea of what
artificial
intelligence was
supposed to do.
I think I've said it
before.
I think we've all
seen it,
where people have
made the joke of AI
was supposed
to be doing all the
hard stuff so that
we as a society
could enjoy an
easier life.
And instead AI is
making art and
recreating.
And I say art with
an asterisk.
It's not making art,
it is taking.
It's like it is with
the text.
It's
a word calculator,
and it is taking the
words,
and it's putting a
value to the words.
Because if any of
you look up the
videos of how words
or how the large
language models
work,
it puts a value to
this.
I'll say it this way
when you write text
or when you put an
image
into an AI,
it is.
It sees it as the
same thing.
It doesn't see the
words as letters on
a page,
or it sees it as a
block of an image,
and it associates
that image with what
it's been trained to
understand that
image means.
So you could write
the word banana and
you can show it a
banana,
and it might
have been programmed
to understand those
two things almost
identical.
If anything,
there's probably a
web kind of thing
where the word
banana links to the
image of a banana,
links to the color
yellow,
and so on and so
forth.
And that's how AI is
understanding
things,
quote unquote,
understanding how
it's being
programmed to
recognize patterns.
And the
reason that's
important is doing
that is the
unfortunate way
where it's just
being used for those
things.
And then when I went
to the medical
research and seeing
how it's being used
and seeing the
patterns being used
and seeing that it
recognizes a pattern
for cancer so it can
recognize
cancer earlier or
blood diseases and
stuff like that,
like all these
things that the
pattern aspect of AI
and quicker
recognition of the
patterns made sense.
And I was just like,
oh,
they're using it.
This is the way I
was hoping it would
be used.
So that's what the
last episode was
supposed to be
And then
my aunt passed away.
My aunt passed away
on
September 4th,
and all of a sudden,
the only thing I
could think of with
AI was,
and it's such an
unfortunate thought
that I had,
but I just wanted to
take every word she
had ever said
and
train an AI
I wanted to take
every word she'd
ever said
and train
Train the AI
to be able
to recreate her
voice
Because of how badly
I wanted
To be able to speak
with her
that's all I could
think of
It's all I could
think of
All I could think of
was cloning her
voice.
And that's.
It's sad that that's
what
it is.
It's sad that that's
the thought I had.
But it's all I could
think of because she
was gone.
And now that she was
gone
I didn't want to do
the selfish thing of
bringing her back
because she wasn't
she wasn't
She was in a hard
place.
She was in a
difficult place when
she passed,
health wise,
and I did not want
to bring her back
just so that she
would continue being
in that situation.
I wanted to be able
to watch videos and
have pictures of
her,
and then I kept
thinking about
having just one more
conversation with
her,
and the fact that we
could have this
technology that
could recreate that.
And then I knew
ultimately that
there would be such
a pain,
such a sadness when
I would talk to the
AI version of her.
But there was just
a moment of of
wanting that because
it just meant I
don't know what it
meant
It's never rational
when you have those
those thoughts,
right?
You you lose
someone,
you lose someone,
and you start to
in your head,
grapple with the
loss in whatever way
possible.
And for me,
the idea was if I
could have her voice
and not just her
voice from the past
or the present,
but have something
that could capture
again as I'm trying
to walk through it.
Even as you're
listening to this,
you could probably
tell I'm grappling,
or I'm having
difficulty coming up
with a way to do
this that would even
make sense,
because it was not a
rational thought at
the moment.
It was a thought
that came purely out
of
sadness,
and I wanted to see
my family to.
When I found out
that she passed,
I kept thinking
about how badly I
think I even said
this at the funeral,
that technology and
our advancements
allowed us to spread
throughout the
world.
And was that even a
good thing?
Because had it not
existed,
there's a chance
that my community,
my family and the
community that they
grew up in would
have continued and I
would have been
closer to my family,
you know what I mean
But those are just
the thoughts you
have when you lose
someone
when you're trying
to
process that loss.
And for those of you
who know me,
I'm a very logical
person and I love
technology.
So my my mind
immediately went to
the use of
technology.
And then my best
friend shout out to
my best friend Matty
Then my best friend
asked me,
did you listen to
the latest Conan
O'Brien episode
from September 5th?
It's on September
5th.
Conan O'Brien did an
episode of his
podcast called
I Think It's Jules
is Always Right.
Yeah,
Jules is always
right.
And in that episode,
they speak with
Jules.
Jules,
who has ALS,
and his wife Maria,
talked with Conan,
and Jules uses AI to
have the
conversation
So when he initially
found out got his
diagnosis,
he started recording
his voice and
different
intonations,
different tones and
stuff to create a
voice clone using AI
for to to give him a
voice.
And then and you can
hear like because
they played the two
different versions.
They play his
original clone
voice,
which was more
robotic and didn't
have as much
emotion.
And then they play
the more updated
version of the AI
voice,
the ones that we're
all hearing
nowadays,
11 labs and so on
and so forth,
all those different
sites that are
cloning voices and
offering these
perfectly AI created
avatars with,
you know,
mimic voices and
whatnot.
And in that episode
In which,
you know,
thank you to Maggie
for suggesting I
listen to it,
because at the time
when I,
because I,
you know,
like I said,
I just lost my aunt.
I just found out the
day before,
I'm at
Maggie's messaging
me,
being like,
have you heard the
latest Conan?
I think you'll
really like it.
And the episode is
about giving this
person who lost
their voice,
a voice
And it was a
beautiful episode,
and I do highly
recommend you if you
have a chance to
listen to the
episode,
because it is
interesting and it
ties into what I
wanted to discuss
anyways.
The use of AI in
medical spaces.
See how I kind of
brought it all back
together?
That was the whole
point,
guys.
The whole point was
I was
going to be honest
about the pain I
went through,
about the loss.
And then also I was
able to figure out a
way,
because if you've
noticed,
there haven't been
episodes for a
couple of weeks
because I couldn't
fathom doing a
podcast episode
after the loss right
away,
and I still had this
image in my head of
discussing the
medical aspect of
AI.
So listening to that
episode gave me and
it was perfectly
timed.
I,
you know,
sometimes the
universe works in
mysterious ways,
but having just lost
someone,
having
spent like 24 hours
just thinking of
where I could find
clips of their
voice,
because I was
obsessed with the
idea of recreating
her voice because I
wanted to hear it,
I wanted to hear her
voice,
and I wanted to save
her voice so that it
existed forever in
some way or some
form,
and ultimately
realizing that
that's not the right
thing to do.
But then to hear a
AI being used to
give a voice to
someone who had lost
their voice.
And it made me think
about when my aunt's
health was
deteriorating.
Would an AI had been
able to help her if
she was able to
communicate more?
When I think about
some because my aunt
was elderly,
and when I think
about some of these
elderly people
sitting in these
rooms,
I wonder about if an
AI voice or an AI.
Yeah,
an AI tool that
could help them
communicate.
You know,
for those who can
communicate or
even if it's just to
take some of their
writings and to turn
those writings into
the voices of family
members so that
there's that
constant
conversation to help
their memories.
I don't know,
obviously I'm not
there yet.
I haven't figured it
all out.
But when I think of
the use of AI in a
medical sphere and a
medical
space,
I like the idea that
we could take
voices.
Like,
I could take my
voice,
my dad's voice,
my other my aunt's
other siblings,
um,
my cousins,
we could all create
these and,
and have,
you know,
with,
with a family member
who is,
who might be
slipping away
or who who is having
problems with their
memory having us
recite these stories
of moments we shared
with them to keep
them connected and
help them recognize
the voices.
That's the thing
that I thought was
beautiful as an idea
of using AI,
because,
you know,
I went to see
another aunt of mine
recently,
one that's in
Montreal who
similarly has a
health issue and is
suffering from
dementia.
And when I saw her,
you know,
my dad said hi and
he,
you know,
he held her hand and
he said his name.
He said,
I'm here to see you.
And my uncle was
there and my
uncle held her hand
and they both put
their hands on her
head.
And you could I
could I,
you know
I'm not necessarily
the biggest in
spirituality,
but my God,
you could see the
energy.
And they both said
hi.
And she didn't
react.
She kind of reacted,
but she didn't like
react.
And then I said,
hi auntie.
And she said,
huh?
And I and in that
moment
it felt like the
three of us talking
to her brought her
closer.
When I picture where
she is in her mind,
whether and I'm not
not to picture it as
she's lost some.
A lot of times I
picture it as she's
in memories that
make her happy,
but to pull her back
for a moment with
our voices so that
she could be present
in the moment with
us,
just so that we
could say hi to her
and to see the
reaction because she
reacted was next.
And it gave me a
moment of like,
okay,
the voices,
our voices help our
voices.
And that's why
the AI voice idea
was an obsessive one
in my mind.
And it still is,
as you can see.
You know,
this is a couple
weeks later.
This episode is
coming out at the
end of September.
I've been dealing
with the loss since
the beginning of the
month,
and it's,
uh,
it's
difficult,
but it I'm having
those thoughts about
how AI is helpful
because I don't I
don't want to live
in a world or live
in a mindset.
I should say.
I don't want to live
in a mindset where
AI is an evil big
bad,
because
AI isn't an evil big
bad,
it's the people
using AI.
That's the other
thing.
I feel like we need
to pivot the
conversation a
little bit.
Not just to say AI
is evil,
because AI giving a
voice to Jules
and allowing him to
continue to speak is
not evil.
That's not an evil
tool
And and I think it's
important for us to
recognize the
different uses and
the ways it's
beneficial.
AI trying to
recreate art
just for the
purposes of
recreating art so
that it can devalue
artistic and
creative creative
spaces.
Evil,
pointlessly evil.
There's no reason
for us to create a
society that
demonetizes and
devalues and
demoralizes
creatives.
It doesn't even make
sense.
You want that in
your society.
Can you imagine a
society where there
are no creative
whatsoever?
What's the point
But
AI being used to
give voices to those
who have lost their
voices?
AI being able to
detect cancer or
diseases before
earlier and
faster.
AI being used to
help give mobility
to people because it
is recognizing the
brain pattern,
waves to a
mechanical arm so
that it can
understand how the
nerves work.
AI being used in
those
ways is a positive
and and it took
seven episodes for
us to get to a point
where I could say
there is a positive
use for AI.
Every other week has
been a conversation
about AI and what AI
is being used as,
but this week I can
say there are
positive ways for AI
to be used,
and if I've said it
in the past,
that was me being
hopeful.
This week.
I can say with
certainty after
listening to that
podcast episode,
after doing the
research,
after being more
informed on the
subject that there
are positive ways
for AI to be used
that are not just
money grabs that are
not just
corporations,
that are not well,
they're still
corporations using
the AI to create the
tools.
But ultimately
there's still a
positive behind the
motivation
And with that,
I come to the end.
I want to thank
everyone for tuning
into this episode.
This one was a
difficult one,
but I definitely
wanted to get it
out.
I wanted to speak my
mind on the subject.
I wanted to speak
the truth because it
was very difficult
for me,
but I'm happy I was
able to do this and
I want to thank
everyone who's been
supporting this so
far
So I'll be back with
another one soon.
Take care everybody
The Dumbest timeline
series two A.I.
Hosted by Brian
Holidae,
produced by Brian
Holidae for Brian
Holidae Productions,
co-produced in
partnership with
Free X Agents Media.
Theme song by Jasper
Q Jonze.
Mixing by Brian
Holidae.
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