135 – AI’s Surge, Meta’s Chaos, and the Crisis Facing Young Doctors

Marcus: [00:00:00] If you enjoy this content, please take a moment to rate and review it. Your feedback will greatly impact our ability to reach more people. Thank you. Well, you're looking pretty clean and tidy over there. Yeah. 

Vic: Yeah. I decided at 54. I'm just admitting that I'm bald going to go high and kind of high and tight and just, uh, not do the comb over thing anymore.

I like it. Yeah, 

Marcus: I 

Vic: like it. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. I I actually think it, it, I actually think it makes you look younger. 

Vic: Yeah. I've heard that from a couple people. And most importantly, I'm glad that you like it. My wife likes it. That's That'ss the one person that I actually That's right. Cared about. That's right. Um, although I love you, I more, I can't more what she thinks.

Marcus: That's right. That's 

Vic: right. 

Marcus: Well, 

Vic: you look good. You look good. And it's easier, like, and now I don't have to worry. I just, like, I did Pilates this morning. Usually I'm like stressed about remembering everything and I just don't do anything. Right. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. And it's not gonna move. Right. It's just gonna stay.

Well, that's good, man. That's good. Uh, what's going on this week? 

Vic: Um, quiet week. I mean, I had a, you know, a lot of. Portfolio [00:01:00] companies. We have changes in, uh, various portfolio companies that I can't talk about, but, uh, some things that are really good and some things that are hard. It's sort of a mix, kind of like the economy.

Some, some companies are doing great and some not. So great. Dude, I had the exact 

Marcus: same week. Yeah. Exact same week. Um, yes. Yes. Uh, and it's like the things that are happening in the market right now create challenges for some companies and organizations and create massive opportunities for others. Yeah. And I think, you know, in the rundown we're gonna go through Yeah.

Some of those, those varied results. Yeah. Um, you know, at the, at the highest levels. Um, but yeah, I mean, this, this is, uh, it's, it's a really interesting time, um, where some companies are gonna thrive and Yeah. You know, and some companies are gonna really struggle. Yeah. And that's just kind of the way it is.

I mean, it's the benefit of having a portfolio. Right, right. I mean, for sure. For sure. Yeah. 

Vic: Yeah. That's right. I mean, I think if you are sort of in the world of bits and software, it's. Easier. It's easier. Pretty good. 

Marcus: It's better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty good. Uh, and then [00:02:00] also this was audit week. Yes. And, uh, maybe that's all I'll say about that.

Yeah. Yes. Uh, yeah. You know, you talk about an industry that, um, I think AI is gonna to have a massive impact on. Um, yeah. I think the world of, of audits for sure. For sure. Um, the more that we can depersonalize those interactions would be great. Yes. I would appreciate that. 

Vic: Yeah. And the value of credentials, I've been thinking a lot about that as we go into ai.

We're like, a lot of the things I need an auditor to do, I mean, at the very basic level, we show them the management's version of Right. All the financial statements. Right. And they, they audit it. They review to make sure we're doing the right thing. That's right. And they have a certification and say they're qualified for that.

That's right. Um. Yeah. That certification, it's gonna keep them valuable for a period of time, but [00:03:00] eventually they're, they're not, you know, the certification maybe is not as valuable as the service. 

Marcus: Yeah. And what does the certification do? It validates that the person has actually passed a test. Right. It's really all it does.

Right. And you can very easily test AI to see if it knows the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. It, it's called benchmarking. It does, it does. It's called benchmarking. Right. So, uh, again, the, the analogs to replace, you know, human labor with digital labor Yes. Continue to, to, uh, get stronger and stronger. Alright. Uh, we have, uh, quite a compelling show today and, uh, let's, uh, let's go ahead and dig in.

As always start with the economy. Um, GDP what a, what a incredible result here. Negative GDP, negative 0.3%. GDP, um, the chart looks absolutely terrible, but not surprising. Right. Not surprising. Yeah. We, we kicked off the first a hundred years [00:04:00] of Trump's term. Yeah. A hundred days. 

Vic: It's felt 

Marcus: like a hundred years.

Oh, that's a years, yes, it has felt like that. I'm gonna hit my head on a mic right now. Uh, yeah. The first a hundred days of, uh, of it does feel like that, uh, of, of Trump's term. And, um, we're in a trade war, right? Yeah. We're in a trade war and people anticipated the trade war. He, he said he was gonna lead with tariffs.

He's done it, he's actually done it. Uh, and so huge, huge, huge shift, particularly in the net export category for GDP, right? 

Vic: Yeah. That was really the, um, that drove the change. So negative GDP primarily because we imported much more. By a factor of three or four, then we exported. Um, we always import a little bit more than we export, but in Q1 it was a lot more.

Mm-hmm. And I think that is, you know, somewhat to be expected and no, no one expected this extent, but people stocked up before the terrace [00:05:00] took effect. Sure. My portfolio company certainly did. Sure. I think everyone did. Sure. Um, so that's. I think that drove the result. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. It, it, it, it, uh, I hadn't really thought about it, but in this article, this Wall Street Journal article there, they're, uh, talking about how Trump on truth social said, this is not my stock market.

This is Biden's stock market. You know, you can't blame me for, for it, you know? Of course. If it's going well, he'll, he'll say, he'll say it. It was 

Vic: his, it was his stock market in December. Yes. Oh, when he hadn't even taken office yet. Yes. Because it was going well. Yes. And now it's Biden's, so, yeah. 

Marcus: Yeah. He, he, uh, never takes an, never misses an opportunity, uh, to.

Take credit for all the good things and pass blame for all the bad things. That's a consistent trait for him. Uh, alright. So a DP numbers, they always front run the BLS report. Um, they are showing that there is a forecast of 120 K that's down from 147,000 in March. But last time when we reviewed the a DP, it, it, uh, you know, it was supposed to sort of foreshadow what was actually gonna happen.

And it was [00:06:00] quite off the, the mark. Yeah. That BLS actually came out with the week, uh, afterwards, 

Vic: right? Yeah. So the forecast was one 20 and a DP actually delivered, saved 62,000. So Oh, less than half. Well half. Okay. Um, so for April, the forecast was one 20 down from March 1 47. The actual one March was 1 47 and it was 62.

So 80. Now 

Marcus: saying 62, 

Vic: that's what actually happened in April. Now they may not reflect. Got it. BLS, you're right. It's a week in front of bbl s Yes. Typically. I have, and a lot of people watch this as a early indicator, but it's not tracking Exactly. So we'll have to see, but it's not a, I think it's not a good sign.

Marcus: Yeah. Uh, it looks like ADP's chief Economist here is, is basically saying that employers are not feeling comfortable pulling the trigger on, on hires Yeah. In this environment. Right. It makes sense, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, no, no one wants to actually provide guidance. No one wants to forecast [00:07:00] anything.

Right? 

Vic: Yeah. 

Marcus: So. If you, if you can't do those things, it's, it's kind of hard to make the investment in Right. To new people. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, UPS to cut 20,000 jobs after Amazon breakup. So this feels to me like, not so much tariff story, but more the continuation of Amazon building out their entire vertical stack.

Um, very, very confident in, in, uh, delivery, at least across the United States at this point. Mm-hmm. And, uh, probably had the leverage to negotiate very, very, uh, shrewdly with UPS and, and, uh, ultimately leading to, um, a change in the contract, which forced UPS to let go of 20,000 people. 

Vic: Yeah. I think it's partially Amazon.

I think it's partially there's gonna be less goods being shipped around for a period of time. Mm. So, um, they laid off 20,000, they have about 490,000 workers, so it, it's not a huge percentage, but it's a pretty big headline number. Yeah. Then they closed 73 buildings. [00:08:00] Wow. Which, wow. I don't know how many billions they have, but 73 across the country seems like a pretty big number too.

Yeah. 

Marcus: Amazon is their biggest customer, so, um Right. I would imagine there was some significant concentration risk in that contract, right? Oh yeah, 

Vic: definitely. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, alright. And then a little bit more about the international trade war, uh, wall Street Journal article, headline, Beijing doesn't want America to see its trade war pain.

So obviously, you know, this kind of. Uh, mucking up the, the global trade system is, uh, is painful for all. And, uh, I, I do think that that, uh, at least in the, in the social media, uh, propaganda war, China's done a great job Yeah. Of presenting themselves present that like, we will 

Vic: not kneel or whatever the title was thing.

Yeah. 

Marcus: And, and very resilient in terms of like, um, outing some of the bigger brands. There was that, that really great reel about how Birkins Yes. You know, or like, really cost about $500, but they sell 'em for $10,000 you could buy direct from this Chinese warehouse, 4,000. Right. So I, I think in terms of, uh, you know, leveraging TikTok and leveraging, you [00:09:00] know, red Note mm-hmm.

And social media, they've done a great job with that. But of course on the ground, um, it, it, it has to be, you know, hurting them economically. 

Vic: Yeah. I mean, the US is I think by a decent margin, their biggest customer as for, for exports from China imports to us. Yep. And what that's completely turned off right now.

So there's. We are suffering, but I think China is also suffering. 

Marcus: Yeah. There's this chart here of, uh, year on year change of China's exports. Um, and 2025 is, is, uh, down significantly, uh, 10% down. Yeah. So, yeah, that's right. It's pretty meaningful. 

Vic: Yeah. And that, I think, um, to me, both leaders seem pretty resolute at continuing to fight for a little while, but may, maybe there'll be some, I 

Marcus: mean, I don't, I don't think, uh, well, I think, at least what I feel like I've seen over the last week to [00:10:00] 10 days is, you know.

They're both angling towards saying they're, they're going to get together and, and come up with a solution. Uh, but they can't, neither can look weak mm-hmm. To their country, to their home country, or to the rest of the world. Right. And so I, I, I feel like we're seeing, uh, some level of respect and diplomacy at the highest level between Trump and G and at the same time also them trying to represent the strength of their respective countries.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh, and then Canada. So, uh, Canada has elected Mark Kearney as the prime minister. This is, uh, kind of a reversal of, of the trend that was happening in mm-hmm. Canada prior to Trump taking office. Right. Uh, calling Canada America's hat, and, uh, saying that it would be our 51st state. Right. And all the other fun things that, that he said that has caused Canadians to not purchase bourbon or not, uh, you know, travel into the United States.

Yeah. Um, and so now they have liberal leadership, uh, at the highest level. And [00:11:00] this was not where it was headed. You know, Trudeau was kind of out of favor. I. Um, and the conservatives were, were mounting a, a pretty strong sort of populist, uh, wave. I I would say, you know, in line with Trump during the election, uh, season.

But once Trump actually got in office and started disrespecting, um, even Pierre, you know, had to start saying, Hey, you know, forget this guy. So, uh, so this is a, it's interesting to see how Trump is, is causing boomerangs of, of sort of political fortune in, uh, in the countries that he is targeting. 

Vic: Yeah, that's right.

I mean, I think there is no question that Mark Carney ran basically on opposing Trump and this. You know, aggression from the us Canada's strong, 

Marcus: right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, so very, very interesting outcome there. And, and I, I think that storyline will continue to play out. Mm-hmm. Uh, from a tourism perspective, from a tariff perspective, from a, you know, shared resources perspective and, and probably even from a defense perspective, you know, um, [00:12:00] I think there's, there's so much there between our mm-hmm.

Our, our two countries that have just been taken for granted as like, it's like intermingled. Yeah. Um, and I think we'll start to kind of see as they uncouple a little bit, uh, while these two newly elected leaders figure out what their path forward is. Um, but certainly Kearney is, is very, very strong on, uh, taking Canada in a direction that does not make it dependent on the United States VC rundown, plen full.

Raises $50 million in a series B funding. Uh, San Francisco based provider of AI workflow automation. Um, they're modernizing healthcare operations. There was 50 million in a series B, uh, was led by Mitchell Rails and Arena Holdings, uh, participation from Notable Capital, Bessemer, Bessemer Venture Partners, TQ Ventures, suse, and other investors.

Vic: Yeah, and this is, uh, sort of, I think really, really good. We, they're bringing AI workflow and AI automation to help [00:13:00] our workforce, our people in healthcare, and our people need a lot of help. And so I think it's great. 

Marcus: Uh, so they are currently, uh, working with, uh, medical University of South Carolina, uh, sensor renowned Health Shields Healthcare Group and Samaritan Health.

So no super big names at the moment. Right. But that's a pretty big round. Mm-hmm. So, uh, you know, we'll, we'll see how they continue to gain market share. All right, next up, health Plan Data Solutions secures 15 million with, uh, MK Capital. So this is a, uh, a pharmacy payment integrity and benefit optimization company.

Um, they are based in Columbus, Ohio, and, uh, MK Capital, uh, alongside Tamarind Hill Jobs, Ohio. And everyone Ventures, we friends in Columbus. 

Vic: Yeah. And it, I don't know this company, but I know, as you said, I know several of the investors. Mm-hmm. I know Tamron Hill as well and Jobs Ohio. They're, they're good investors.

And, and it, it seems like a great space. I mean, we have portfolio companies in this space. It's, it's. There's [00:14:00] so much opaqueness and people don't understand what they're spending money on. Yes. So bringing transparency, bringing information can be really helpful there. 

Marcus: It's an overall theme that I think people are really buying into right now.

Mm-hmm. So, um, it's really smart and obviously, you know, PBMs, we, we talk about them feels like every single week. Right. Um, the opaqueness that they bring into the market. Mm-hmm. So, uh, so definitely, um, you know, good deal here and, and congrats to health plan data solutions. Alright. Um, Trek gets 11 million to unlock healthcare's pricing Black box.

This is Axios Pro. Um, so Trek Health is a startup using AI to healthcare providers get accurate payments. Um, their 11 million came from Madrona and, uh, it was their series A. 

Vic: Yeah. So this is on the same sort of theme, um, Trump, really Trump version one required cost transparency by health systems and payers.

So you have to put all the contracts out there in machine readable code. But it is very difficult to get [00:15:00] insights from that. Hmm. And so Trek is grabbing all of that information and sort of reconfiguring it so it's useful for people as they're negotiating new contracts or I. Whatever they, you know, are doing in the marketplace, they provide that insight.

Mm-hmm. I think it's smart. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Uh, you know, the data is machine readable. Um, it's pretty comprehensive, but very, very difficult to parse through. Um, but very, very valuable data, um, that can be used strategically for like pricing and negotiations. Yeah. And all sorts of other things. So, so pretty smart here and, and nice size round for Trek.

Uh, also Axios Pro Blooming Health raises 26 million for social services access. We were talking, uh, before we started, hit record that neither one of us knows that much about the social services space. Mm-hmm. Uh, we do have a portfolio company called Samaritan, um, that has worked with the homeless population.

I think they started in San Francisco. Is that 

Vic: Um, I think they started [00:16:00] Seattle. Seattle. It was Seattle. Okay. Okay. But yeah, they're in six cities now. Yeah. I'm actually talking with, they have a new CEO in trying do tomorrow. Okay. But yeah, this was surprising that this company, their clients are. Community organizations and government agencies as reported on Axios that they're bringing in 10 million in revenue and Insight partners, you know, which is a great firm.

It's a great firm, and not necessarily focused on charitable efforts. I mean, they're definitely a for-profit group. Yes. They are putting $26 million into this company. So I, it makes me think I wanna learn about this more. I agree. Must be a big opportunity for Insight Partners to put money in there. 

Marcus: Yeah.

I, I, I agree. Um, I, I wanna learn a lot more about it as well. Um, it feels like something that is, uh, very byzantine. Probably a lot of like very small disparate organizations. Yeah. You have, and, and it's very valuable to sort of stitch a network together of all of them leveraging [00:17:00] data. Mm-hmm. Technology, probably some AI as well.

Uh, so I, I agree. I want, I wanna study this company. Yeah. And maybe through the company we can better understand the space. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, uh, going into policy, so Senators introduce RPM, remote Patient Monitoring Access Act to increase rural payment rate for remote monitoring. So obviously we, I think we both are aligned.

This needs to happen. Yeah. Needs to be more support because we know rural hospitals will continue to close, especially given the, the changes that the House GOP is looking to doing, to, you know, Medicaid. Right. We, yeah, we know, we know. There's no question. Remote 

Vic: monitoring has been good. Well all around. I mean, there's not anyone I know that is against remote patient monitoring.

Marcus: Well, it's, it's just, it's just been a, uh, it's just been too much of a pain to figure out how to actually get it paid for. Yeah. Especially in rural communities. 

Vic: Yes. And so in the rural communities, it's, it's more needed. Yeah. Because it's obviously a much longer drive to your provider if, if there is a provider within a reasonable drive, say an hour drive.

There are communities now that don't have the [00:18:00] providers within an hour drive. So, um, Senator Blackburn from Tennessee and Mark Warner from Virginia introduced us. So it's a bipartisan bill. Bipartisan, 

Marcus: yep. 

Vic: Um, I think it's great. Uh, it's, it's a long road to get this through the house and the Senate, but, but I'm a cheerleader for it.

I hope it does. Yeah, for sure. For sure. I 

Marcus: think it's great. Um, alright. Modern Healthcare Supreme Court rules against hospitals in the DSH case. This is the case. Uh, advocate Christ Medical Center, v Kennedy, uh, was the seven two decision. And basically this was around, um, the li how the lives are being counted, um, for Medicare and SSI and effectively the courts ruled, um, that they don't have to, that that CMS does not have to be hyper-specific when they're counting the lives, which is gonna mean that the hospitals are going to get less, um, less pay for, for taking care of this population.

Vic: Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, there was a effort [00:19:00] by the Biden administration that I'm in favor of to, to try to get more money to these organizations that are really serving our most, most vulnerable populations. And Kennedy, what's one of the first things they did was change that. So they, they questioned it, but it, it's been.

It's been shot down in lower courts and Supreme Court now, so, 

Marcus: yeah. So, um, I mean, I, I feel like when we started this, this show, uh, there was a rally of wins that hospitals were having, uh, you know mm-hmm. In, in, in the courts. And it feels like lately that those fortunes have turned. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Uh, more modern healthcare, CMS explorers, limiting insurers use of prior authorizations.

Uh, I did not read this story, so tell me about this 

Vic: one. Okay, so, so this is good for health systems. Okay. Also in, you know, HHS broadly, it's, it's more, uh, Dr. Oz. So, um, I mean, I think everyone believes that prior auth, well, it's a necessary part of the payer's job. It's [00:20:00] overused. I mean, I, I would say it's overused.

I, I don't think we should. Reduce it altogether, but what, what CMS is exploring and they haven't created a rule around it yet, but they're exploring limiting it or having a maximum number per month, per year so that a payer can't just as a policy, put prior offer on every procedure. Right. Um, and I obviously the details will matter, but I think that probably makes sense.

I mean, prior auth should be utilized sparingly for things that are either very expensive or controversial. You need to have a lot of oversight and review and it. Certainly, in my opinion, it has in the past been used, been used too much. 

Marcus: I mean, I remember one time when I ran into a prior auth issue, um, it's not with UHG and I won't say what the, what the insurance company was.

Uh, but I ran into a prior auth, just, just trying to go, you know, get a CAT scan. Yeah. I mean, you know, they run [00:21:00] prior auth for like every single, you know, rad RadTech thing you wanna do. Yeah. And it's like, do do you really need to do that? I mean, A, it's not that expensive. And b, if I've got a doctor's order for it, like just, yeah, just lemme get the, lemme get the scan.

You know what I mean? Right, right. So yes. I, I, I agree. I, I think it's, it's uh, it's, it's overused generally. Yeah. Uh, okay. Humana bucks Medicare Advantage cost trend. UnitedHealth 

Vic: Group came out. Fir they always announced first. Yes. And so they created a lot of fear in the market by, 'cause their medical loss ratio was really high.

They missed earnings. But we've had multiple payers now, since then. Since then. So I think the trend is actually. Everything seems to be okay in Medicare Advantage. So I'm not sure the title makes sense, really. Right, yeah. Got it. But they, they, they performed well. They, they had fine earnings. They met, met their earnings and, you know, medical loss ratio was at 87.

Um, so it's, you know, a little over the 85, but down from where they [00:22:00] were a year ago, 89, which is good. So they're making improvements, which is good. 

Marcus: Yeah. I mean, you know, they, they've been, they've been I think hyperfocused 'cause they've been targeted for more than a year now. So they probably have now a year of effort in getting that MLR down from 89.3.

Yeah. Last year to 87.4. Well that, that's a pretty good progress, I would say. Yeah. You know. Yeah. That's pretty good progress. Um, okay. Fierce healthcare backstop by Q1 over performance tenant healthcare will stay aggressive amid policy uncertainties. Yeah. So to the health systems, 

Vic: um, similar to HCA, they met earnings.

They beat earnings for Q1, but they didn't increase the year guidance because of the uncertainty around the terrorists and the economy and everything. Right. So, um. That's, that's what it's saying. Basically be 

Marcus: better to just keep beating quarter over quarter than like 

Vic: Yeah, I think that's right. You don't, you don't really get rewarded much to increase guidance in this environment when people coin it and you can get away 

Marcus: with not doing it.

Yeah. Right. You know, the analysts aren't gonna say, well, you performed well in Q1, why aren't you revise [00:23:00] guidance? Yeah. They're not gonna say that given everything that's going on in the market. Yeah. 'cause 

Vic: other, other companies more the consumer focus, airplanes and travel and things are pulling guidance all together.

That's right. That's 

Marcus: right. Um, alright, this is healthcare Dive. UHS, uh, universal Health Systems sees behavioral health volumes drop in Q1. Uh, so yeah. So 

Vic: they missed earnings. UHS is kind of an interesting combination of, they have acute care hospitals, but they also have behavioral health hospitals. Yeah.

And it's a pretty 

Marcus: big behavioral footprint. Yeah. 

Vic: Yeah. And so they ha they, the admissions, uh, declined on the behavioral health side and they missed earnings. So unlike H-C-A-C-H-S tenant, UHS. Is sort of the outlier here. 

Marcus: Yeah. I mean, but, but they're, they're basically saying, and, and it's certainly true, you know, seasonality matters.

Weather patterns matter when it comes to healthcare, and they, they're saying that there's a leap year, you know, atypical winter weather or some other things like that. Yeah. I mean, 

Vic: I think tenant had a leap year too, but Yes. Well, 

Marcus: no, but I, they're we're referring specifically to their behavioral [00:24:00] health volumes.

10 tennis footprint is more acute in, in surgery. Right. 

Vic: Yeah. So I think it's fine to say behavioral health is different than overall. I think it's 

Marcus: different, 

Vic: but the leaper stuff and weather is like, no, no. Everyone had a leap here. 

Marcus: No, no, no. Weather. Weather matters. Weather matters 

Vic: matters more to behavioral health than other.

Marcus: I would, I would say so, yeah. Okay. I would say so. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. You might, you might skip the therapy, whereas you're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna see if the doctor's appointment if you're sick. I, I think so. Uh, Teladoc acquires uplift for $30 million doubling down on virtual mental health, despite better health struggles.

This is fierce healthcare. Uh, you know, usually our Teladoc stories are not very good. Just, you know, you can look at their stock chart and see why, right. Uh, better health. That acquisition has been kind of a disaster. I don't think that's hyperbole to say that, right? I mean, yeah. It's been, yeah, I think that's right.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. I, I don't, I, I don't wanna bash Teladoc here. I'm j but Better health has not been a good, uh, acquisition for them. So it is of note that they are continuing to invest in this space. Um, I, I would [00:25:00] imagine though, you know, uplift $30 million is not a lot of money for a public company transaction.

Um, and how much revenue did, uh, uplift have? 15 million. Okay. Two times revenue. So they got two times revenue. 

Vic: I mean, the, uh. I fear, I'm gonna bash Teladoc as well. The, I, I think Teladoc is a struggling organization. They're, they're the largest digital health platform out there. They were the first, and I think they're sort of buying things to keep growing and keep doing something.

But they, I, but the crazy 

Marcus: thing is nothing they've bought has been a creative 

Vic: Right. Because their whole platform is, is struggling. They don't have it much differentiated. It's all sort of, you know. Okay. Are they still the public market? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Marcus: So, so they miss Q1, they should go private. Somebody should buy this thing private and kind of clean it up.

I mean, 

Vic: yeah. 

Marcus: I 

Vic: mean maybe it's, [00:26:00] it's just a, it's a, it's, it's still got big distribution. It's a melting ice cube in my mind. So it's like every quarter it's less good. They've, they've bought, I know they buy one thing a year and they. Buy it and then it sort of, they're gonna have to go off 

Marcus: the public market if they keep declining in value like this.

Well 

Vic: that's why they buy things. 'cause then they can get to stay. Can stay. Yeah. You can get some 

Marcus: size. Alright. Uh, moving into pharma. Novartis is going to buy reus therapeutics for up to important, up to 1.7 billion. Uh, Regulus is a, uh, kidney disease treatment company. 

Vic: Yeah. So these are two public companies.

Uh, Regulus is a us I think they're in San Diego, kidney treatment. Um, so I, I think it's good to see m and a transactions happening. It's not a huge deal for pharma, but, but I, I think it's worth celebrating a transaction happening at all. 

Marcus: So, uh, 1.7 would, would that qualify, uh, on public markets as mid-market, mid-size [00:27:00] cap?

I, I think think 1.7 make mid cap. Oh, I 

Vic: think, I think over, I don't know. I'm not sure. Okay. I mean, large cap's like 10 billion plus. Right. Yeah, I'm not sure about what, I think it sort of depends which, which, which industry part. Yeah, yeah. Which part, which sector? But probably it, it is mid cap. Okay. I dunno.

Marcus: But it, you know, it just, just seems like a decent, uh, place for farmer to go fishing. Right? Yeah. You know? Yeah, that's right. Mid cap stocks. Right. Um, alright. Pfizer expands cost cutting measures, reaffirms outlook. The company expects to save an additional 1.2 billion from automation, ai, and other digital tools.

So that is their storyline. I mean, so they're gonna save money from AI and automation. That's, that's there's, they're not talking about their assets in their portfolio. 

Vic: They don't have, they don't have pipeline to gross sales. So, yikes. It's like, please don't look at the fact that we have no growth. We're just gonna save our way to.

To success, which does not work. I don't know where Pfizer is headed. They don't think good. I mean, cost cuts. Cost cuts 

Marcus: is, is kind of what they, what they are [00:28:00] are doing. Right. You know, they're not, they're not buying companies. They're cost cutting. Um, alright. This is a story I want to dig into a little bit.

Uh, modern Healthcare HIMSS and hers, Novo Nordisk, partner on GLP ones. Okay. Finally, we, we are now into the next chapter of this story, right? The, the first chapter was Novo and Lily. Real, the real deal versus the compounders. Yeah. FDA for window of time said, we're going to allow the compounders because we have a shortage.

We were past the shortage. FDA said, you gotta stop. Uh, it wasn't, was it HIMSS that did the Super Bowl ad? Yeah. Yes. Okay. So HIMSS does the Super Bowl ad, right? Hoping to sort of win public, you know, opinion in favor, right? Three days later, FDA rolls out guidance. No, right. You can't do it. You need to start shutting down.

And so, but in the meantime, Lily has really been making tremendous strides, not just in terms of coming up with neck, the next generation of things. They've got a pill on the way. Mm-hmm. But also just generally speaking, their products are winning in the [00:29:00] market. Yeah. Um, their products are winning in the market.

They're able to 

Vic: go to direct, they have Lilly Direct. Direct. Yes. And which I think their pricing is a little friendlier 

Marcus: plug for our plug for our LP meeting. We were able to have Lily direct. Yes. Uh, Lilly direct. SVP at our Yes. LP meeting, which was awesome. Yes. To learn more about that. Um, and uh, and yeah, I mean, now the second chapter is the big brand distribution channel, HIMS and hers is partnering.

With Novo, who I would, I would consider in second place right now in the, in the Glip one race. Yeah. Um, so great partnership, right? Hims and hers now is legitimate differentiated amongst all of these other direct to consumer brands. Yeah. They're no longer a compounder, right? No longer a, a, an outlaw. And they're partnered with, with a great brand, wegovy, you know, um, from Novo.

And Novo gets distribution. Novo doesn't have to try to figure out how to do a Lilly direct. They just can now work directly with Hims and her. So this is, this is a really smart, [00:30:00] mutually beneficial deal. 

Vic: I think that's right. It it's two companies that both had challenges coming together and realizing, you know, your chocolate will taste good in my peanut butter or whatever.

Like, yep. Yep. The, uh, wegovy gets a reasonable price, I think it's $500 a month, so not the 300, 2 50 to 300 that HIMSS was. Pushing before, but, but also much better than the thousand. Um, and they can say to the US government, they're sort of being responsive around making things more affordable, and they both now are able to try to compete against the Lloyd Direct and, and others like that.

So I think it's it's a good marriage. Yeah. I, I, or partnership, whatever. 

Marcus: I, I mean, to me, this, this starts a whole new chapter in, in the whole Glip one. I. Yes. Story. Right? Um, because are others going to start striking these [00:31:00] types of partnerships? Um, you know, is Lilly satisfied with what they've pulled together with Lilly directing, they're gonna keep going or will they in parallel, you know, seek to partner with ROE or Yeah.

Or one of these other like really, really big, big brands. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's, it is just, it's just an interesting question to, to consider what will, what will happen next, and then what really happens to all the compounders that are left without one of the major Glip one providers. Right? 

Vic: Yeah. Yeah. Now, unlike, um, Teladoc should have done this deal, like doing a, a deal where you have product and you actually sort of making margin on it, that that's what HIMSS has done for a long time.

First with sort of male products and female products. Oh, hold on. 

Marcus: We gotta dig into the article here. So it says right here that Novo is actually gonna partner with Roe and Life MD for a similar service. Okay. So 

Vic: they're sort of locking up all the market. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. So, no. So Novo decided they're just gonna go work directly with all of the different, um, and then hours later, Eli Lilly said in a statement, it had no [00:32:00] affiliation with the telehealth company.

So this, this is, this is an interesting Yeah. Bifurcation of different strategy strategies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is gonna be, this is gonna be interesting to, to sort of watch from here. Um, okay. Merck to spend 1 billion on new factory to make us supplies of blockbuster drugs. So this is going to be, uh, in a new Delaware facility.

It's good for Delaware. Mm-hmm. Um, and uh, add another billion to Trump's tally Yeah. Of, uh, manufacturing that's being grown, uh, in the United States. 

Vic: Yeah. Which is great for our security of pharmaceuticals. Good for job creation. I don't know if it's gonna help jobs in the second quarter. But, but good. 

Marcus: Uh, no, but, but it does build to his narrative.

Yeah, that's right. The fact that he is re, you know, rebuilding the, the domestic manufacturing strength of, of, yeah. There's no questions that there's 

Vic: been both tech and healthcare and probably other things I'm not thinking of right now that, that are building facilities and investing in the US [00:33:00] because of the tariff problem, uh, policy.

Marcus: Yeah. And, and also probably like, you know, I think on the pharma side, probably also carrying favor with Trump that can be conveyed to their dealings with, you know, RFKs, uh, yeah. Hhs, right. Yeah. You know, so I think that's, that's also probably in there as well. Uh, okay. Now, uh, to health and us. Uh, first story, amateur athletes are turning to ozempic to raise their game runner cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts say weight loss drugs, give them a performance edge despite potential risks.

I mean, this is kind of the thing with athletes. Um, I can especially 

Vic: endurance athletes. 

Marcus: Maybe. Maybe. I think it's, I, I think, I think it's all athletes. I mean, look, I'm in the juujitsu space and the number of young people who are on trend mm-hmm. And gear and, and I mean, dude, you know, they're not making any money, you know?

Yeah. Being juujitsu fighters. Right. Right. And they're still, it's, it, it's not even about that. It's, it's about glory and whatever they think they're going to get [00:34:00] out of mm-hmm. Doing these, these sports that are not, you know, the NFL and the NBA Yeah. And MLB. Right. You know, that actually pay people. Yeah.

Um, 

Vic: and I guess there are weight, there are weight classes. So if you are five pounds off. The next lower weight class. Yeah. You can cut weight and get that. Totally. Yeah. Totally. 

Marcus: Totally. Yeah. Um, and you know, the thing about Glip one is it's like, I mean, it doesn't feel that far off from aspirin anymore.

You know? Everybody's on it. 

Vic: Yeah. 

Marcus: You know? Yeah. Everybody's on it. So why, why wouldn't athletes be on it for, for a performance boost? 

Vic: Yeah, that's right. And I think, uh, I had heard about this, but I hadn't seen it in print before. The microdosing thing. Oh yeah. So people are doing, they're sort of titrating, what amount do I want to do that?

It's not the recommended dose. They're doing less than that. Sure. To try to try to, you know, kind of titrate in their weight loss to where they want to be 

Marcus: telling. Man, the athlete world is a weird world. [00:35:00] Yeah, that's right. It's a weird world. Uh, this next story that we're going to, uh, cover, um, is going to deal with suicide.

Uh, so if this, uh, triggers you in any way, please, um. You know, fast scrub, fast forward to, uh, uh, to the next story. And also, um, you know, if you or someone you know, um, is struggling at all, uh, the helpline is 9 8 8, and we always would encourage you to, to seek help, um, if you're having any troubling thoughts.

We had to start with a, a little bit more of a fun, interesting story. Uh, as we moved to a story, we debated whether or not we were gonna talk about it. Mm-hmm. I, you know, but, uh, but it's important because it's happening to many, many young people around the country who are following their dreams, um, and, uh, entering into the, the field of medicine to serve communities, uh, around America.

Mm-hmm. And we're talking about, um, young doctors who are in residency [00:36:00] and, uh, as. As anyone who has known a doctor, who has gone through residency knows, uh, it is grueling. It is grueling. Mm-hmm. Uh, long, long, long days. And I think importantly, um, sleep deprivation. Yeah. We, we've probably never had more clarity than we do right now, May 1st, 2025, about how important sleep is for overall health, but certainly for brain health.

Yes. Um, we're starting to really get some clarity about what happens when you get less than four hours of sleep. Um, there's all sorts of, you know, cancer fighting agents that, that stop working in your body. Yeah. Um, parts of your brain just don't function correctly at all. Uh, and unfortunately, this story in the Wall Street Journal, the, um, the headline, I just wanna take a time a minute to set this up.

Yeah. But the headline is Suicide Reverberates among Young Doctors, and it's really, um, the story of, of a young doctor named Dr. Nikita Mortimer, um, who was. You know, obviously [00:37:00] loved by her family, but also loved by her colleagues. Yeah. Um, and, and clearly had a passion for the work she was doing. She was in this to be a servant.

Um, but the, the, the, the rigor, I don't wanna say the stress, the rigor of, uh, of, of the residency, uh, contributed to, uh, her, her taking her life. 

Vic: Yeah. That, that's right. And I, I think that we have to do better, like the, the reason we have to talk about this, even though it's a really sad story and, and a hard story, and is that every doctor has gone through this.

Yeah. And there that there's this, uh, I don't know, badge of honor of passage or rite of passage of, of passage, I think is the, like, I 

Marcus: survived it. And, and, and, and by the way, I think it's really important before we go further, we any further haven't, we didn't do it. We, A, you and I have not done this. Right.

1. I don't, I do not want anyone to hear us saying, [00:38:00] all doctors think this is a rite of passage that every new doctor needs to go through. I, I know many doctors who, who very much think that resonated residency needs to be overhauled. Yes. So, I, I 

Vic: just want, just wanted to say that before we go any further.

Yeah. I, I think that's right and we have been talking about it being need to be overhauled for a long time, and yet it doesn't really get overhauled in any significant way. Yeah. I mean, there are, there are incremental changes, but it's not good for learning. It's not good for patient care. It's not good for scary patient care for the mental health of the residents.

Right. It, it doesn't have the outcome that we want for training our doctors. I, I just think it, and so. Whether you want to get better patient care or teach them better or protect their mental health or all of [00:39:00] the above. I just think there, there, there must be things we can do to, to, to make this better.

Marcus: Yeah. I mean, look, whenever this particular model, um, of on the job training was established, we were working with different information. Yeah, that's right. And we, and, and I'm sure that it was, uh, crafted with the best of intentions and with the best understanding that we had at that time. I mean, we are miles ahead in our understanding at this point.

And so yeah, they were 

Vic: smoking in the operating room at that point. There's been a lot that's changed since then. And yeah, I don't, there was no bad intentions when this model was created and it, it has to be improved. 

Marcus: Yeah. Now obviously. It is very easy for us to say it's gotta be improved. I think it's the right thing for us to say, because if it is contributing to despair and deaths of despair, um, then yes, of course we need to look at it.

And I think we also need to recognize [00:40:00] this kind of system change is, you know, like the, I I think the only thing that was sort of for, it's interesting, right? Like in, in a time where we're dealing with a hundred days of unbelievable, uh, federal policy changes. Mm-hmm. It's like th this is kind of one of those areas where you probably could use a really strong.

Immediate change in, in federal policy. Mm-hmm. It would not be, it would not make the change management of it any more fun. Yeah. But like, you think what would actually make the change happen? And, you know, something from on high, right. Just kind of saying, ah, enough of this. Like, we're, we're just not doing this anymore.

Right. You know, figure out a new way, whatever, but like, this is not allowed, it's legal, whatever. Um, so anyway, I, 

Vic: I mean, we want our doctors to be the, the best that our society has. The smartest, the hardest working, the most talented, the most [00:41:00] passionate, the, I think they can be, but going through other rites of passage and it's plenty hard in medical school and allowing them to sleep six hours, seven hours, I think would be.

Positive. Yes. 

Marcus: Yes. 

Vic: Agree. 

Marcus: So anyway, link will be in the show notes. Um, you know, it's a hard story to read, but I think yeah, a hard story to read and obviously every time we talk about, you know, um, this matter of like, feel free to turn away, if you know it, it, it triggers you in any way. Um, alright, we're gonna move to the next story.

Alright. Fierce healthcare Cedar rolls out AI voice agents to tackle patients' medical billing questions. 

Vic: Yeah. So we now are seeing, there was talk in the first couple months of the year about ag agentic AI or agents and we now are seeing the first couple, um, out as, as sort of ready and being, being used.

And so c is is the [00:42:00] first one, is a couple today we'll cover. Um, and it's helping what is one of the most frustrating. Areas for the consumer, which is around patients understanding their medical bills. Like, what should I pay? How do I understand this? It doesn't match with the, what the insurance is saying to me.

I just don't understand. And I think every patient can identify with that. And unfortunately the doctors are billing as they're contracted to bill, but then it doesn't match up. And so it's super confusing. So Cedar has an AI voice agent that you call and it, it talks to you in voice, like you would talk with a.

Customer help, but, but it has access to all the records and is patient, and you don't wait on hold because it's, it can take as many calls as come in. 

Marcus: Yeah. Uh, in addition to Cedar, they also talk about, um, an organization called Apollo md, which is a medical practice group. Mm-hmm. And of [00:43:00] course, you know, these medical p practice groups that are embedded inside of all these hospitals, but they bill separately, like, you know, the, the, the fury from those customers is much higher.

Right. Yeah. So I think a, uh, it, it's probably a kinder, uh, you know, job for AI than it is for human to sort of deal with, have to answer the call. They talk about that, 

Vic: like, the AA doesn't get angry. It just, it's very patient. It walks through and if the patient has questions, even though they've talked about this five times.

The AI doesn't care. It, it's, it's very help. Happy to go through again. It'll, it'll talk all day. Right. It'll talk to you all day 

Marcus: about it. Right? Yeah. So, uh, thi this seems like a really smart, well-placed application of voice ai. Yeah. Um, and yet just another example of how it's, it's, it's gonna continue to eat away at, at digital label, we we're continue to eat away at human labor.

You know, uh, Zocdoc launches a voice AI agent, Zoe, to streamline bookings by phone. And I think this is another one, right? Yeah. Like, give me somebody I can talk to every time I call. Yeah. No [00:44:00] wait 

Vic: times. Right? And, and it knows all the available slots. And if you scroll down, they had a good stat of how many, um, what percent Zoe was able to, to, uh, 70%.

So 70% of the calls Zoe handles without any human interacting. And so it, it's. It's great. I think it's great for the medical administrative staff. This is not a task that they love to do. No, I wanna change my appointment from here to here. That's not, no one got into medicine, super passionate about that.

And it's great for the patients. So you're not on hold and you get your appointment booked and it's good. 

Marcus: Yeah. And you know, you don't have to worry about, okay, let me, let me punch this in over here. No, the AI is working with the computer booking system. It's, it's part of Zocdoc. It's like you're literally talking, you're talking to Zocdoc.

Right. So everything is gonna be reflected immediately in, in your booking system. They don't have to like punch it [00:45:00] into a, to a terminal or anything like that, so. Right, right. If you're 

Vic: listening, remembering the, the sort of the voice trees from five years ago, this is not that. No, no. This is natural language.

You just talk to it however you wanna talk to it. That's right. In any language, importantly. So you can talk to it in Spanish, you can talk in Chinese, you can talk to it in whatever you wanna talk to it and it understands. Yeah. 

Marcus: Uh, okay. TechCrunch, visa and MasterCard unveil AI powered shopping. Uh, so they're calling it Intelligent Commerce.

Uh, and we're gonna have agents that are shopping on our behalf. Yeah. So it's really 

Vic: interesting. They are. I mean, there's a significant challenge around if I send a shopping agent out into the world to buy a present for my wife. 

Marcus: Yeah. 

Vic: Where's their wallet? Where's their wallet? How much should they pay?

Right. And how do I know it's not gonna then go buy other stuff? That's right. What's the limits? How are the limits be? And I may not get all those goods. And so Visa and MasterCard are trying to take their trust, [00:46:00] their like brand loyalty and then create what they're calling parameters. So like I can set it up where it only can shop at these five.

You can only shop at Amazon, it can only shop at these five brands, and you can limit the spend. And you can set it up however you want. You could change the parameters per item or keep 'em in general. I think it's a pretty interesting role for them to play. 'cause they are trusted by both sides. The, the merchants trust them.

The consumers trust them. They're not bringing out their own, they're partnering with all the big platforms. OpenAI, anthropic, perpetually, they listed a whole bunch of them. Yeah, of course. So it's, it's pretty interesting, interesting way to sort of approach this trust challenge. Um, and I think it's gonna work.

I mean, or some version of this is gonna be out there. 

Marcus: Yeah. I mean we, we've talked a lot about how. The u the ultimate use case for crypto may not be for humans. It may in fact be [00:47:00] foris to work with each other. Yeah. And be able to transact with each other. Right. But that's not the same as a human wanting to leverage AI to, to shop on its behalf.

Yeah. That requires a whole nother layer of trust and visa and MasterCard, you know, they've already got all of our trust. Right, right. I mean, we, this is, those are the rails we use. Those are the brands we use to transact around the world. And so it's, it, it was always gonna be their position to, um, to, to leap into ai.

And they've, they've been pretty, you know, on top of it. So. Yeah. 

Vic: Yeah. So I listened to a VAV, uh, interview with the head of Visa. He's talking about three to four months being out there. 

Marcus: Nope. 

Vic: So by Christmas. By Christmas, that's the, that's speed. It's gotta be by, by Christmas you're gonna have an agent shopping for you.

Marcus: That's, that's the speed it's gotta be. Alright. Uh, this is a terrible story. Yes. Wall Street Journal. Headline, Meta's Digital Companions will talk sex with users. Even children reading this article was so uncomfortable. Um, [00:48:00] it's incredible how interactive the Wall Street Journal of the New York Times have gotten now with their browser based stories.

'cause they integrate all these animations that are, um, interactive. As you scrolling Yeah. You can 

Vic: see the chats going back and forth. Yeah. Yes. 

Marcus: And, and so they recreate the chats. One of the names of the AI is Submissive School girl. Someone at Meta 

Vic: named the AI character. 

Marcus: That, and that Right. Just by itself is, is and, and, and, uh, well hold on.

These are created by users, not at Meta. They're created by users. Okay. But they're, but they're, 

Vic: but Meta's serving them. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and so, you know, yes. Look, this is the whole issue with meta. Yeah. Two 30, all the, it's the whole two 30 thing. Yeah. Saying they're a platform and not a publisher. Right.

You know? And, and so you, you're just assuming Meta made Meta. No. Meta didn't do it. A user did it, but Meta enabled it. Yes. You know, no guardrails enabled a user to create [00:49:00] a bot called Submissive School. Girl. It's an eighth grader. The bot? Yeah. Okay. So I, I think that's child porn. I don't, I don't know. I'm not sure the definition, 

Vic: but, but an eighth grader is 

Marcus: well under 18.

Oh, is ridiculous. Right. So anyway, like the, the chat is disgusting. Like, you know. Yeah. Like, you really can't read it without getting Right. Very uncomfortable. Um, but this, like, why, why, why would you not put more guardrails on this? I mean, I know the answer. Why? You know, we're gonna, we're gonna talk more about the why.

Uh, the why is Zuckerberg feels like he met, you know, he missed out on Snapchat. He missed out on TikTok, and he's, he, he, you know, he will not miss on ai, right? Um, but come on man. Come on. Like. The whole world feels like you have, you know, poisoned young people's brains. Uh, you know, Jonathan hates having, you know, the, the career moment of a lifetime.

'cause he's writing a book about how, how you damage young girls and boys. [00:50:00] Uh, and now you, and now you're taking it to the next step. It's not just content in a feed now it's an actual AI chatbot. 

Vic: Yeah. And, and the Wall Street Journal is not a, like a, a, a hit media place. I mean, they are no business friendly and pretty conservative.

And so they, this is not a hit piece. They did a full, like, very detailed research and the guardrails are, are way too loose. And it's ridiculous. It's not appropriate to have that in an, in an app like Facebook runs. I mean, it's crazy. I have an interest in researching this, and there are lots of tools that are privacy first, and that allows for people to do all kinds of stuff.

So, like Venice, for instance mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Is a very privacy focused, [00:51:00] um, they don't hold your data and they're, they're sort of overwhelmingly interested in protecting users' privacy. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. 

Vic: And it's very difficult to do that without also allowing people to do things that they maybe don't want the government to see on there.

Yeah, sure, sure, sure. So they have created, uh, an area called adult content. Oh, that's interesting. And, and so then if you go into the adult content area, then, you know, you're, you're going into the red light district or whatever. Do, do you have to like, ID check and everything. No, but you have to be intentional about going in there.

Okay. Okay. So, so it's, 

Marcus: it's kind of the same level of like clearance that, that, um, pornography websites have or whatever. Yeah. 

Vic: You have to, you have to maybe age gating in certain, in certain jurisdictions that you're 

Marcus: over 18 or whatever. Yeah. In certain jurisdictions you have to prove age and things like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But okay. 

Vic: But that is like sort of a very, um, libertarian, open free, free markets place. And they're doing better than meta. Right? Right. Because at least they're notifying people. Right. Like, I don't wanna see that [00:52:00] stuff and I don't have to, I I haven't gone into the adult side, and it's very clear what it is.

Well, we know many people do. I mean, that's, that's, yeah. People can, if they wanna go in, they can go in course. Of course, of course. But, um, putting it out in sort of the public meta things with no, no children, limited access. It doesn't make sense. Ridiculous. I 

Marcus: mean, it's ridiculous. So let, let, let's, let's keep on, because we have more meta stuff to talk about.

So, so, uh, we're gonna share this post on X, but it's, it's, uh. Zucks, uh, phone, video, uh, announcement. Wearing the glasses. Yeah, yeah. Wearing, wearing the glasses. Uh, that, that, I mean, they, they really do look pretty good. But, you know, you, you, I'm starting to get used to seeing that there's cameras on both sides, and I'm just like, it's just not cool, man.

It's just not cool walking around, like you're just spying on the whole world with your cameras and your glasses. I mean, 

Vic: they, they look good. And Meta's tools are good, but they're, it's almost bad. Everything's creepy. They're so good. But it's all creepy. Yes. That's all. It's all 

Marcus: creepy. Anyway. Um, [00:53:00] meta now has a standalone AI app.

Um, I have, I've installed it because I'm, you know, I'm trying to learn all these AI apps. Yeah. Right. Um, and I, I will say, you know, different interface, like it's got the chat bot thing, but it is a social app. So it's got, it's, it's got a built in feed. You have to set up a new meta ID for it. So you can't simply use your Facebook or Instagram login like you Oh, interesting.

You 

Vic: can't just pour your stuff over there. 

Marcus: Well, you, well, you start with that, but in the process of starting with that, it tells you you're going to use that to create a meta id. Hmm. So it is just like this new global ID that I think plays into the Oculus stuff and some other things. Okay. So it's, it's, it's beyond your Facebook or Instagram ID now at this point.

Um, 

Vic: and they're collecting data at a different level, maybe, I guess, or different type data I guess. Yeah. So anyway, um, you, you can, I mean, it's, it's gonna be a strong competitor because how. Strong [00:54:00] Instagram and, and Oh, of course that it is, of course. And it's, it's designed at the outside to, to, to monetize through, through advertising.

Marcus: Of course, of course. And speaking of that, meta posted $42 billion in sales and has strong growth. So, you know, we can hate 'em all they want, but they continue to crush it, crush it, crush it. 42 billion in sales. 

Vic: Yeah. For one quarter. It's just 

Marcus: unbelievable. 

Vic: And so all of these things are printing money.

They're, they're not great ethically, in my opinion. And they're, I think Zuckerberg has enough money, he shouldn't be doing these things, but, but they're, they're benefiting shareholders. He's not motivated by money anymore. No. It's, it's, uh, he wants to not miss and not be one of the top two, not top one thing in ai.

He wants to win. 

Marcus: Yeah, he wants to win. Yeah. Yeah. He wants to win, he wants his platform to win. You know, he's way beyond that. Alright, moving to open ai. So OpenAI, we already talked about shopping with Visa and MasterCard. [00:55:00] OpenAI is also adding shopping into chat, GPT. Um, so this is continuing to erode Google's position as, as a search, uh, as a search engine.

Uh, 1 billion web searches per week are going through chat GPT at the moment. 

Vic: That's not, that's not the chat, which is much more than that. It's, those are searches that like they put in the chat, can you help me find a coffee maker 

Marcus: and chat? GPT is then searching, then does the search, 

Vic: right? Yes. 

Marcus: Right. Yes.

Um, so yeah, that's, that's amazing. That's an amazing, amazing number of billion, huge number 

Vic: billion per week. And so they've added in shopping links so that when you do the search, the, an example here for a coffee maker, you can then just click on it and buy it. Yep. And it's. Modeled after Google Shopping.

It looks like Google Shopping. Yes. Yeah, yeah. 

Marcus: Yes. 

Vic: Um, right now they're not monetizing it, but I think that is the next step. Of course. They're just sort of learning and they'll monetize it eventually. Of course. 

Marcus: Yeah. So OpenAI [00:56:00] continues to mount a very, very serious threat to Google. I mean, it's, it's getting really serious now for Google.

I think, you know, um, Microsoft flexes muscle in the cloud office and Windows as earnings jump. This is Wall Street Journal Tech company beats Wall Street's targets while forecast shows resilience in a turbulent market. 

Vic: Yeah. So Microsoft did really well financially. They beat earnings, their cloud performance in ai, but also in non-AI outperformed.

And so what the reason to include this is that I. I think even if we have a slowdown in the economy for which I fear we're gonna have in the second quarter, the tech companies are, are gonna go, they're all in, in ai and they're, they're getting paid for that. They're doing well. And so it's not gonna slow down.

They're gonna keep going. Um, they're gonna keep going. Yep. 

Marcus: Yep. And final story, Joanna Stern, who [00:57:00] is a, uh, technology contributor to the Wall Street Journal, writes an article about a new device called the B, which is a bracelet that you wear. 

Vic: Looks kind of like a Fitbit size. It's pretty indescript. 

Marcus: Yes. It looks like a Fitbit.

That's, that's a, that's a good description for anyone who's not watching. What does the B do? Well, it records everything. Yes. And it sends those recordings via Bluetooth to your phone. To the app, which then uploads to the servers. So it's creating all this data. Mm-hmm. About you so that it can just become your AI brain.

Vic: Yeah. Every conversation meeting song you listen to, lunch conversation, talking to yourself on in the elevator, it records all of that. She used it for three months. Yep. And it's a pretty well written story. She says like all the positives, it was [00:58:00] really helpful in helping her to recognize that she told someone she would send him an email later, but she didn't actually ever do it or whatever.

'cause you forget things that you're talking about all day. But then it's also pretty creepy to have a recording device on you. All day, every day for three months. 

Marcus: Here's the sentence. Well, first of all, there were three different devices. She, she tried. One is the $50 B Pioneer, that's the bracelet. Another one is the $199 limitless pendant.

And then there was the $159 plot. Plot, I think is how you pronounce it. Uh, note pin. Um, and the, the sentence is, is this the dawn of the AI surveillance state? Absolutely. Is it also the dream of hyper personal all-knowing AI assistance coming to life also? Absolutely. Um, I, mm, [00:59:00] I can't get comfortable with this and I think a lot of people are not gonna be able to get comfortable with this.

But I think there are people who are going to go all in on this and they will both have the pros and the cons. Yeah. That come with that. That's right. And the pros. Will be, uh, I think pretty powerful in the world of productivity. Right? Because I think a lot of us are trying to figure out how to get AI to work for us.

And I think this is heading in a direction where you won't have to really do, do the mental work to translate how AI can help you. Because the AI will know. You ask well enough. 

Vic: You can ask, you can ask it, right? 

Marcus: Well, I think it'll, no, I think it, it, I think it's even a step ahead of asking. I think it actually can make regular high quality suggestions.

Vic: Yeah. Yeah. 

Marcus: Unprompted un like I think that's the thing. I think unprompted, it can make high quality suggestions about how it can help you in your [01:00:00] life. Right. If it knows everything about you. So that's, 

Vic: I agree. That's, that's level one. But I want to go to level two. Okay. Which is. In the States where she was.

Yeah. So New York and New Jersey. Okay. One of the parties being recorded must consent. Ah, but everyone else was being recorded, right? No, I know. And it is legal to record everyone in the meeting as long as one person consents. That's not true with every state. So you should need to check your state. But, but, and people should look at the video, these are very small devices.

You would not notice them if you were in a meeting and someone was recording. No, they're very inde script. Even if you had listened to this and saw them, it still might be hard to find them. Um, because they're, they're inde script. They just sort of fade into the background. They're quite small [01:01:00] and people will be recording their life and you won't know it.

So. You'll be meeting with them and I need to check Tennessee. I mean, one of the things that I'm need to do is like, is it single consent or not? Um, and I think we'll have, we might have laws changed, but right now there's about, I think half the states are just one person needs to consent. And of course, if you are buying the device, you're con you're of course consenting.

Yes, yes. It's, these laws were written for like wire tapping or criminal investigations. They weren't written conceiving of an AI recording, everything. So it's, it's really gonna change. It's gonna, I think it's gonna change like how we listen to pitches or how I give feedback to pitches or I don't know.

Everything I 

Marcus: look, I, I, I learned there, there have been twice that I've learned, uh, to never say never. They've both been Apple. [01:02:00] The first one was when Steve Jobs, uh. Basically killed Flash, went all HTML five and pushed everybody into the app store. And I was like, that's gonna kill open source. It's gonna kill, you know what I mean?

It's gonna kill the browser. It's like, this is terrible, terrible, terrible. And it was like, didn't matter. It, it took over everything and then the AirPods was, was the next one. I was like, what the, come on. I'm not walking around with two little white sticks popping outta my ear. Right? And Vic, I walk around with the white sticks popping outta my ear all the time.

So like, I'm not going to sit on this show and proclaim today that I'm never gonna do this. Because if it becomes, I mean, I see the benefits if it becomes normalized, and I'm not gonna be an early adopter of this. Like I'm not gonna be the early adopter spy. Okay. But. At the point where it becomes ubiquitous in society and like it just be becomes what we're doing.

Yeah. We'll all be doing it. 'cause you'll be participating whether you want to or not. Right. I mean that's, you know, so again, this is just yet another, what, what does AI want? [01:03:00] AI wants data. Yeah. You know, um, and the richest kind of data is, is real time, you know, video and audio data. That's the richest kind of data it could possibly get.

And 

Vic: here we go. Right? So you're wearing this pendant or the bee right. Never forget anything again. And then you have the Zuckerberg glasses on. I'm not wearing the Zuckerberg glasses. And, uh, you hard stop on that one. You immediately, you know, are getting sort of feedback on everything around you. That's crazy.

And the, the issue is that I think once 5% of the population uses it, that's enough. Every, then they gets a huge advantage. Everyone has, has to adopt. 

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. That, that's enough. Five, 5% is enough to go to. Percent just goes ing 80%. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, pretty, pretty scary AI rundown this week. I think, uh, between meta's, you know, ridiculous lack of guardrails and Yeah.

And, and thoughtfulness. And then, you know, surveillance tech that now is looking very fashionable. [01:04:00] Yeah. And it will be near impossible to detect. 

Vic: Yeah. And in a quarter where there's a lot of economic uncertainty, 

Marcus: but the Max Seven's doing great. They're killing it. 

Vic: Yeah, 

Marcus: yeah, yeah, yeah. But AI's not real, it's not really gonna happen, you know?

Yeah. It's still 30 years away, but 30 days away, 30 minutes away. 

Vic: Yeah. Yeah. Um, 

Marcus: alright man, look, uh, next week I am out. 

Vic: Yes. Yeah. We have a guest host. Yes. Rickson, who is, uh, really knowledgeable at ai. Yeah, that's great. And, and acquisition and a former CEO. So he'll be good. He'll be good. Yeah. Rick's fantastic.

Uh, do you have a guest show next week? I don't know if we're publishing one. I'm not recording one next week. Okay. But the schedule okay. Confuses me. All right. Well I think we probably do not. Okay. Well, 

Marcus: you and Rick is, is is plenty good for the week. 

Vic: Yeah. We'll see what the news stories are, but he, but he's certainly, um, he's known Marcus Whitney, but he'll be a good filling enough.

Marcus: Rick. He's, he's, he's, he's, uh, he's quite formidable. Um, alright man. Great job this [01:05:00] week. Yeah, thank you. And uh, I'll see you in a couple weeks. Yeah.