Love Island Fandoms Get Dark ; Kristi Noem Writes the Rules at CBS; Girls Do Porn Creator Convicted; AI Podcast Startup - NEWS ROUNDUP! w⧸ Ashley Ray
00:02:24.740There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative.
00:02:35.280I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.
00:02:40.900Welcome to There Are No Girls on the Internet, where we explore the intersection of technology, social media, and identity.
00:02:46.020And this is another installment of our weekly news roundup, where we dig into some of the stories that you might have missed, so you don't have to.
00:02:52.200I am so thrilled to be joined by this week's guest host, Ashley Rae, the host of TV I Say, a podcast that I've loved for a really long time.
00:03:02.340It was on Hayatis. Now it's back on The Courier Network. Ashley, thank you so much for being here.
00:03:07.340Thank you for having me. I am so excited and I'm a big fan of you.
00:03:11.260Oh, my goodness. Well, this is great. So, you know, this is a tech podcast, but it's also a culture podcast, which includes TV, which I watch a lot of.
00:03:20.120for folks who don't know, Ashley has the most correct television opinions out of anybody out
00:03:24.780there. So if you disagree with Ashley, you're basically just wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong
00:03:28.100about TV. I just finished listening to your episode with Gibson Johns, which was delightful.
00:03:34.460I will say like something that I was so curious to ask you about that episode is that, you know,
00:03:40.180you were talking about reality TV, which I'm obsessed with. I watch a lot of it. And it
00:03:45.820sounded to me that you both were kind of agreeing that you don't kind of like get mixed up in the
00:03:50.460online fandoms that is something i've really noticed you like you can't just watch and enjoy
00:03:55.440a show like love island you like like let's say that you have an inconsistent opinion about
00:04:00.600somebody on love island there's this like rabid fan base style made in the conversation oh you
00:04:05.140just stay out of it i mean i got called out for that very reason uh this last season of love
00:04:12.100island i was a big olandria fan uh i loved her throughout the season i was rooting for my girl
00:04:17.020i wanted her to leave taylor the whole time and when you know it was that frustrating week when
00:04:21.760she just like kind of wouldn't do it and her friends were like no you should try again and i
00:04:24.900was like i'm so frustrated like you need to play the game differently and go for what you want girl
00:04:28.880like i'm so tired of this and people were like what how dare you criticize her weren't didn't
00:04:34.400you just say you liked her and now you're criticizing her and i was like so you can like
00:04:38.460someone and also not like everything that they do and and then yeah and people were like i don't
00:04:44.860understand and then i was happy when she got with nick and people were like how can you be happy
00:04:48.180when you were just criticizing her and i'm like because she did because she went for what she
00:04:52.820because she did what she wanted and it's just wild like there's so i it's standom all of it i don't
00:05:00.040quite get there's some docs out about it actually if you want to check about stan on paramount plus
00:05:05.260people really really intensely love to love someone and reality stars i guess are the perfect
00:05:13.800target i've been a reality tv fan for a very long time you know some of some of the shows that i
00:05:19.020have watched i've i have a very long relationships with them i'm thinking about shows like og real
00:05:24.300housewives of new york oh yeah i i feel like the stan standom online fandom stuff i feel like that
00:05:32.620is so that it's gotten so much more toxic and so much louder and it didn't used to be like that
00:05:39.300back in the day you would read what kelly ben simone had to say on the bravo blog right but
00:05:44.120but it didn't really necessarily go like you didn't have people watching engaging in this
00:05:49.560level of fandom online around it and looking at your every move i i just think love island is the
00:05:55.020sort of perfect example of how bad this just i don't know ecosystem has gotten where they went
00:06:02.200out and looked for things in these people's lives because they didn't like them just so they could
00:06:07.720pull that out and cancel them people were calling ice on someone in the cast family like people
00:06:13.580were calling cps and huda's daughter and her daughter and her baby daddy like that's where
00:06:18.480i just i don't understand i also have been watching reality tv since the osborne since
00:06:24.160simple you know this is a simple life like we didn't do this like i was never watching the
00:06:30.320Osbournes and I was like I need to know Ozzy's every thought and who he's friends with and I
00:06:34.900need to follow him on every channel and now it's the expectation is like they need to immediately
00:06:40.400leave the show and they need to be on Snapchat and this and this and I should be able to know
00:06:44.460at all times what events they're going to are they still dating this person and I don't know
00:06:49.260exactly why we people think they have that level of access or why they deserve it or why they
00:06:54.580think it's mandatory if you're on television but i don't think that we can demand that of people
00:07:01.580just because they go on a reality show no and it also just makes it less fun yeah it makes like i
00:07:07.360want to watch a silly fun show i don't want to have everything this person has ever done and said
00:07:12.120dragged up on social media and then and then be expected to litigate it myself yeah like watching
00:07:16.620this tv show yeah like it's a political statement if i like watch love island and laugh at something
00:07:21.520austin said i don't like austin but he can say something funny it's entertainment and so i like
00:07:28.120with 90 day fiance i try to separate like the real happenings and i just watch the show i don't like
00:07:35.580pay attention to the gossip of the fans and what everyone's arguing i just i try i just put my
00:07:40.960faith in the narrative that i'm presented by producers yes i mean i have noticed even beyond
00:07:47.220the fandoms especially on bravo some of the shows have gotten quite dark you know i'm thinking about
00:07:53.420some of the some of brin's storyline from the last season of roni which was a mess some of the
00:07:58.680stuff i don't know if you watch potomac some of the stuff with like mia yeah the valley is quite
00:08:03.820dark like i had to sort of check out of it for a while because i was like well i don't want to
00:08:07.640watch like like a family go through something that seems quite real even like below deck got
00:08:14.460really dark like yeah i don't know what was up with bravo or i i don't know what was kind of
00:08:19.500going around the bravo universe at the time but like even below deck i think it was below deck
00:08:24.540mediterranean had this odd season where like two people were kicked off of the crew because they
00:08:29.520like assaulted other people on the crew and everyone was just like should we still be doing
00:08:34.400below deck and they kind of like we need to redo it like we just need to change everything like we
00:08:38.680need to make it fun again like let's get some fun happy people in the crew and I don't know I think
00:08:45.040obviously if everything is the pandemic and you know but I think there was something about that
00:08:51.620moment and people being more online where I feel like in reality tv people share more now I think
00:08:57.500there was some expectation before of like this is fake or like we're making a storyline and now
00:09:02.720people are like well you know during COVID I was fine like having a live blog of my life so why
00:09:07.940would i make things up like yeah i'll share these kind of deep personal things and i guess that's
00:09:13.860it's great tv like i do think reality tv now feels more authentic in a way especially the stuff like
00:09:19.96090 day fiance but i guess that is encouraging people to go yeah you share everything so i should
00:09:25.580have complete access to you you should be on like you know tiktok live all the time whenever i want
00:09:29.380to see you yeah i remember back in the day i didn't watch oc but like the stuff with taylor
00:09:36.480armstrong there was like darkness there but looking back now it's clear we weren't the audience was
00:09:42.180not being told everything and there was still this attitude of like oh this we need to make this seem
00:09:48.140a little more polished than it actually is and i think today that they would they would they would
00:09:53.120handle that in a completely different way oh yeah yeah i yeah i i will say i do i give respect to
00:10:00.680reality tv produce they don't they don't need respect but i do think that they have put more
00:10:05.720focus on like mental health and just trying to think of oh right we're putting these people on
00:10:13.300tv and how they appear could have consequences and we're a big part of how they appear and how
00:10:19.520those narratives are made um i hate to keep going back to love island but it was you know a lot of
00:10:24.980what like a landria phase where they show kind of at some points made her seem like a bully her and
00:10:29.920Shelly and you had BuzzFeed like posting memes about like punching Shelly in the face and stuff
00:10:36.520and it's like you know yeah and it's like producers are feeding into that and they had to like kind
00:10:41.380of change the narrative so I do think reality producers now are like yeah let's let's handle
00:10:48.440things with care. I will say I'm sure people listening are like I'm tuning in to hear tech
00:10:54.340takes, not reality TV takes. But I do feel like being a longtime scholar of reality TV,
00:11:02.220I think it helps me understand and explain a lot where we're at politically and socially.
00:11:07.420Trump famously got his start as a reality TV star. If you understand the medium of reality TV,
00:11:14.180if you understand how villains work on reality TV, I think it can be helpful to understanding
00:11:18.340our current political moment. Our current political moment and moment in entertainment. I think if
00:11:23.460you want to understand why kids are watching kick now instead of television why people prefer to
00:11:30.640watch a show on youtube versus you know traditional streaming a lot of that has to do with reality tv
00:11:36.000and kids who've just grown up on that and they are used to it and not only to the point where it's
00:11:40.900the entertainment they're accustomed to but it's the entertainment that they want to make and know
00:11:45.620how to make like there are people that are so young and i engage with them on tiktok and i'm
00:11:50.160like oh my gosh you would be perfect on real housewives like how like you know how to do this
00:11:57.160you know how to craft a narrative out of like your life or whatever is happening and i think you know
00:12:02.900as those kids grow up and start making media i think we're gonna see them really just doing more
00:12:07.720with like reality and it blending the line between that and documentary um there is a documentary
00:12:12.860that just came out called thirst trap on paramount plus um it's about this tiktok influencer named
00:12:19.580like whitey he was like a white guy who was very attractive and he winked to some song by rod stewart
00:12:26.580i don't i don't know there's like a different internet for white people that goes viral i
00:12:30.340didn't know this guy but it all of these like middle-aged women became obsessed with him and
00:12:35.860started sending him thousands and thousands of dollars and he basically dropped out of school
00:12:40.820to make this his career and slowly realized like oh this attention economy cannot last for forever
00:12:47.780It has these negative impacts on my mental health and my psyche.
00:12:52.520And also it has a horrible impact on these people who demand constant access to me and, you know, start doxing his family when he like makes them mad because they don't like that he had a girlfriend.
00:13:05.820And so I think, you know, if you want to understand why it seems like people are just so intense about everything now, I think reality TV, it's the answer.
00:13:58.680OK, so this is actually a great segue into what I wanted to talk about first, which is everything happening with CBS.
00:14:05.680I will give a little bit of backstory to sort of set it up.
00:14:08.160So a few months ago, CBS settled a lawsuit with Trump over allegedly a deceptively edited interview of then presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
00:14:19.200So we know Trump is not. We'll say Trump has a specific kind of relationship to the truth.
00:14:25.600But this is what the suit alleged. His suit alleged that a 60 minutes interview with Harris was deceptively edited to portray her in a more favorable light.
00:14:34.140So specifically, the claim was that there were these different versions of Harris's response to a question that were used in different broadcasts, like a shorter, clearer, more favorable version on Face the Nation, and then a more kind of rambling, less polished, full version that was in a 60 minutes broadcast.
00:14:50.920I have heard both versions and it is incredibly clear to me that the version in question that he is upset about is like just edited for clarity.
00:14:59.520Like they've edited it for time because it's a shorter segment.
00:15:02.460It's like very, very clear to me that's what's going on.
00:15:45.960You and me both. But Trump's argument was essentially that CBS editing these interviews was election interference, sued CBS, CBS settled and agreed to donate $16 million to CBS's parent company, not to Trump himself, but to his sort of presidential library fund.
00:16:04.140Out of this came an agreement that CBS and 60 Minutes in the future will release transcripts of interviews with U.S. presidential candidates after they air with allowance for redactions for like legal or national security concerns.
00:16:17.600Typically, I do feel like a company only will settle like this if they feel like they might lose.
00:16:21.860But I think that Trump I think that with CBS, honestly, I think that they were like, you know, this is a way to curry favor with the new administration.
00:16:29.440I think from the perspective of a CBS executive, it's like, oh, a win-win.
00:16:33.380We get to avoid this, what could be a nasty fight with a vengeful administration.
00:16:37.080And then we could hand that administration like a PR win, kiss the ring.
00:16:56.560Just today that came out that this is the next move. They're just buying it all up to make it cable again. So I think them knowing that's going to get pushback, that would just be such a large conglomerate. I think they're trying to do whatever they can to abuse this administration so they can, I don't know, buy Peacock and every single streaming platform. I don't I don't know why they want to do that. But yeah, I don't know what the end game is either.
00:17:24.980But I will say like they really did a lot, I think, to curry favor with the Trump administration.
00:17:30.700They appointed a bias monitor. And I think that just goes to show like there is no end to like when you give an inch, they take many, many miles.
00:17:40.300There is no end to what they take. And so CBS already has all of this unprecedented oversight from the federal government to make sure that they're not being, I don't know, biased against Trump or too mean to Trump.
00:17:52.080So it is against this backdrop. Enter United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.
00:17:59.080She did an interview with CBS and that she did not like how that interview was edited after the fact.
00:18:04.880So after the interview, she tweeted this morning, I joined CBS to report the facts of Kilmar Garcia.
00:18:11.420Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to Americans' public safety.
00:18:20.440Now, mind you, when she tweeted this, CBS had already posted both the full transcript and the full recording of that interview.
00:18:30.180So it is sort of like, well, I don't know.
00:18:32.380It just it just it just seems like what else do you want at this point?
00:18:35.300They're never they're never going to be happy.
00:18:36.980It's just they'll never be happy if they can find something to pick at to say I'm being victimized.
00:18:43.220They will. That's what they want is that ability to say you're targeting us.
00:18:49.120It's it's unfair for us. So even if, you know, these networks do everything they want, they're still going to turn around and be like, oh, yeah, well, that South Park episode was rude.
00:18:59.420And so actually, no, we're not going to approve this. You know, it's they're never going to be on your side. You can't truly buy them.
00:19:05.620Yes, exactly. So, and again, as we were talking about earlier, it is just so common for networks to do this with lengthy interviews. It is not unusual. It's totally commonplace. And again, the substance of the complaint doesn't even really stand because it's like, okay, well, somebody could just go watch the full interview.
00:19:24.680Honestly, when you look at what they chose to edit.
00:19:27.840So in the interview that upset her so much, she's talking about Kilmar Garcia.
00:19:31.980Kilmar Garcia, of course, was the man who was sent to immigration prison in El Salvador because of what was widely reported to be an administrative error.
00:19:39.220She accused him of essentially sex crimes against a child.
00:19:45.160And as far as I know, there is no evidence of this besides Noam saying the Department of Justice is like looking into it.
00:19:50.320So CPS, I think, kind of completely correctly made the correct call that like, oh, we can't just air unfounded inflammatory lies.
00:19:59.920Yeah, we don't want to get sued for libel like that is real.
00:20:04.920Yeah. And so I don't blame CBS for this at all.
00:20:08.140And to be honest with you, I feel like they're almost doing Christy a favor, because when you say something that is wild and also potentially legally actionable, editing that out is a favor.
00:20:21.660I almost thought they did her a favor by not allowing her most salacious, baseless, inappropriate accusation just stand in that way.
00:20:31.100They almost are trying to make her look, I think, I think, more sane.
00:20:35.000Yeah. And that's the thing is that she doesn't want to look sane.
00:20:37.780And she wants that clip that's going to go viral and, like, get people angry.
00:20:42.460So that's what it is at the end of the day.
00:20:44.460It doesn't matter if it's a lie or not true or unfounded.
00:20:47.560She dropped that because she knew, oh, this is what people are going to freak out over and say, like, oh, she's saying she's making things up.
00:21:03.120And I guess I don't feel like journalists are required to repeat unauthoritarian administrations baseless smears.
00:21:10.060And at the end of the day, like journalists do have an ethical obligation to not just let anybody say anything on their platform.
00:21:17.760However, because CBS is run by people who are really trying to curry favor with this administration, they announced that they are no longer doing any editing of interviews like this.
00:21:29.400So just days after these complaints, CBS News said that they would no longer allow editing of its guests' words on the Sunday morning public affairs show.
00:21:37.380So going forward, they're only going to do broadcast live or live to tape, meaning that guest statements could not be edited, subject to legal or national security restrictions.
00:21:46.700CBS said this change was made in response to audience feedback, which I guess you mean like an audience of one.
00:21:52.460You mean Trump? You mean Trump? You mean Trump and Noam just like sitting?
00:21:55.860I do like this, honestly, because it feels a bit sarcastic and sassy on CBS's part, because I do think this is going to come back to bite a politician in the ass.0.95
00:22:08.740They're going to be like, oh, right, there was a reason why we wanted things edited and we wanted to have a second to collect our thoughts.0.95
00:22:16.100So that's what I'm excited for. Someone is going to say something really dumb.0.98
00:22:19.800This is a low stakes podcast, and it is lightly edited for clarity. If you're talking about important global politics stuff with big implications, you're stressed out. If you're in this administration, maybe you've had a couple drinks. You know what I'm saying? The lights are on you. We're about to get some gaffes. That's a great point.0.78
00:22:37.760Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be good. So.
00:22:40.200OK. I wanted to include this story because there's another sort of sub story in this that it's my own little personal thing.
00:22:47.080So I have a little bit of a bone to pick with CBS, obviously.
00:22:50.680And I live in D.C. We've been dealing with the entire, you know, takeover of our police force and surge of the National Guard in my city.
00:22:59.720President Trump was trying to make a big show of how safe D.C. is and how he's finally cleaned up the city.
00:23:05.860yada yada yada so he was making a big show of going to dinner at a seafood restaurant downtown
00:23:10.400when he got there the activist group code pink had people in the restaurant to protest they
00:23:16.860they screamed they they called him hitler it was a great clip however when cbs news reported on it
00:23:23.640their headline was quote when president trump ate at a washington restaurant to promote his federal
00:23:29.600law enforcement surge of the nation's capital. He was greeted by protesters inside, but cheers
00:23:35.180outside. So I'm going to play you a clip, Ashley. And this is a clip of, I'll put it in the show
00:23:41.960notes. It is Trump walking into the restaurant. It is very clearly outside. I'm going to play
00:23:47.340you the clip and you tell me what you hear. Yeah. So that is the dynamic that CBS News described
00:24:09.120as cheers from outside. I don't know what you heard, Ashley. Would you have described that as
00:24:14.620cheers i know i gotta give that to the booze the booze won that one uh and people swearing
00:24:21.800there were some woos but they were drowned out by the booze yeah i feel like a more honest way to
00:24:28.440say it was cheers and jeers something but just to say that oh the it clearly sort of suggests that
00:24:35.780the people outside on the street love them and there was echoes of cheers but those activists
00:24:41.420It's inside. They've always got, they're always complaining about something.
00:24:45.200Yeah. You know, they were just people always making a ruckus.
00:24:48.660But everybody outside was like, yeah, we love this Trump.
00:24:51.480So, yeah, yeah. I just, CBS, what are you doing?
00:35:32.640Another woman identified in the plea agreement as victim number one was also 18 years old
00:35:36.880When Pratt, quote, rushed her through a contract and did not provide her with a copy, he paid her $2,000 and then ignored her pleas to take the video down when it posted online.
00:35:46.480That woman said in court that she has since graduated from Princeton University and now works with the tech industry and has become a specialist in helping people send takedown notices to websites.
00:35:56.940You know what? I follow her. I follow her.
00:36:01.080She's very cool. Because people like misogynists are always like, you know, some rich guy probably paid for you to go to Princeton, like you're a sugar baby. And she's like, no, actually, I had a full ride scholarship and I do this. And she's just such a badass who is not afraid to shoot back at these people who, you know, think that they can control women with online manipulation.
00:36:26.340Yes. And I think your point is is such a good one, because I think for so long, the implication was that these women don't deserve respect.0.92
00:36:36.080They did. They did it to themselves. Exactly.0.98
00:36:38.680When you actually look at the charges and what they what is what the government says he did, they didn't do anything themselves.
00:36:43.900They showed up thinking there was going to be a modeling gig and they were clearly lied to and manipulated.
00:36:49.440And so I don't think it's fair to be like, oh, well, you brought this on yourself.
00:36:53.140didn't he know this was going to happen whatever whatever whatever and it's like well if i brought
00:36:56.080it on myself he wouldn't have had to lie to me to get me to do it he wouldn't have to manipulate me
00:37:00.020to get me to agree to get me to agree but it's coercion exactly and i remember kind of a while
00:37:05.960ago i think it was two young women who were contestants in the misteen usa pageant they
00:37:12.120were they it was revealed that they were both on this site and they had to drop out of the pageant
00:37:16.760and i remember thinking you know all these years later clearly they were not the one who did
00:37:22.120something wrong yeah what where where was the where was the smoke back then I know we had a0.89
00:37:27.980very different culture for women then but where was the smoke for the person who was breaking the
00:37:31.860law and trafficking women to enrich himself by victimizing and manipulating them yeah that just
00:37:39.140at the time was not part of the narrative nobody thought about like you know revenge porn laws or
00:37:44.460oh the guy is doing something wrong here too it was just oh it's her fault she did you know she's0.99
00:37:50.280is her own fault. She didn't want this. She shouldn't have taken nude. She shouldn't have0.99
00:37:52.840done this. And now at least kind of people are like, oh, you're committing a criminal act like
00:37:59.780this. It's just so intrusive. I like more like just I just think it's one of the worst things
00:38:06.980that can happen to someone, even if it's someone like I don't like, you know, like Kendall from
00:38:11.640Love Island. His nudes were leaked by someone and you just felt awful for him. Like it just
00:38:18.220is such a horrible invasion of privacy and to see someone not only do that because they want to
00:38:25.480humiliate these women but also because they're making so much money off of it and they know
00:38:29.560they can get away with it because there are other horrible men who want this content yeah i just
00:38:33.840makes me so mad yeah you put that really well i mean it's something i think about a lot is
00:38:40.520And I know that you remember this, but in the in the 2010s, the iCloud photo hacks where all of these celebrity images and intimate content got got hacked and put online.
00:38:52.880And, you know, I remember so clearly the conversation that we had about that when it happened was exactly what you just articulated.
00:39:00.300Oh, they shouldn't have taken the pictures.
00:39:01.700I remember the it was a the tech columnist at The New York Times.
00:39:06.360His advice to starlets was don't take nude pictures.
00:39:09.300and here we are you know 10 years later and we really see how none of that met the moment because
00:39:15.980now we have ai enabled deep fakes where all you have to do is exist you don't have to do anything
00:39:21.440you could just be existing in like fully clothed clothed existing and then you don't even actually
00:39:26.760have to have that part you can just have a personality uh and then meta will take you
00:39:32.480and turn you into a sexual chatbot so exactly as they did with taylor swift and it's just
00:39:39.060i i don't know i think you know years from now like as we've had this kind of reckoning
00:39:43.720with revenge porn i think eventually we're going to be like oh right that was a horrible invasion
00:39:48.760of privacy that we were just taking people's photos and making ai images and voices out of
00:39:53.640them um i think it was some brand just recently got in trouble i think it was maybe fashion nova
00:39:59.260but they like clearly were using ai to make their model things and then the ai pulled in
00:40:05.040Luigi Mangione's face yes it was she in yeah is she in yeah and everyone's like yeah yeah that's
00:40:11.740a problem yeah and I wish I could rewind back to those moments like the iCloud photo hacks and
00:40:20.140force us to have a different conversation because about digital consent about about consent more
00:40:26.380generally about not just putting the onus on the victim or or people to not do things in order to
00:40:34.560protect themselves. I wish we could have had a different conversation because I feel like
00:40:37.840where we are today in 2025 might be different. And it's a shame that we had all of these big
00:40:42.080moments where we could have had that conversation and work to create a different culture. And we
00:40:46.020didn't. Yeah. And now we're still dealing with it. And you mentioned a good point of how this is,
00:40:52.640you know, lucrative. These videos from Girls Do Porn, they were distributed to other porn sites,1.00
00:40:59.820like bigger porn sites and tube sites like Pornhub. According to the Daily Dot,0.60
00:41:03.620Girls Do Porn videos were viewed over 800 million times on these websites, including roughly 680 million views on Pornhub, where Girls Do Porn was among the top 20 most viewed channels.
00:41:16.520And it just sounds like even after Pornhub officially cut ties with the Girls Do Porn channel in 2019, it just sounds like they were very, very slow to take these videos down.
00:41:28.460it it took like reporting it took i think motherboard wrote a big piece about it like it
00:41:33.100took a lot of cajoling to just simply take down these videos that i think it sounds like pornhub
00:41:39.940knew were made under very sketchy circumstances yeah and they're making money off of it you know
00:41:45.300i think they also have faced some lawsuits because they you know had videos up that were of people
00:41:50.820who were underage or trafficked and they get those reports and just kind of were ignoring them until
00:41:56.660it was like oh we have to take it down like the cops are getting involved like okay so that's
00:42:01.340exactly why this whole girls do porn thing currently is also implicating Pornhub in 2023
00:42:07.400Pornhub's parent company agreed to pay more than 1.8 million dollars to resolve a criminal probe
00:42:12.440alleging that it profited from sex trafficking through its hosting of girls do porn videos
00:42:17.120more than 120 women have sued Pornhub's parent company in San Diego in federal court alleging
00:42:22.520Pornhub illegally published sex trafficking videos. Pornhub's parent company settled the
00:42:27.420first of those suits under terms that were not disclosed. So exactly what you just said that,
00:42:32.180you know, this wasn't just one small site that was profiting off of this. They were profiting
00:42:39.660off of it. But then those videos were then enriching like much bigger porn sites like
00:42:45.800porn hub and so yeah it's just it's just it's just a scheme where mostly men who run these sites get
00:42:52.980rich off of the manipulation of women and then it's the women who also face this added burden of0.84
00:42:58.540public scorn public scrutiny why did she take the pictures getting kicked out of school getting0.98
00:43:03.640online harassed all of that yeah and then you know like it reaches the andrew tate level where then
00:43:09.560they have the women who are making these videos and then they use that to blackmail them into
00:43:13.960making more content and then they blackmail the women into scamming other men so that they can
00:43:20.660get more money and yeah yeah just a whole pyramid scheme built on manipulation and sex crimes
00:47:31.720Okay, so I have one other story I wanted to talk to you about, which I feel like as a podcaster, as somebody who cares about media, I know I have a lot of thoughts about it, but you might as well.
00:47:41.260Did you hear about this AI-based podcast startup?
00:47:50.160So as a podcaster, I am often asked if I'm worried about AI,
00:47:54.680specifically AI taking the jobs of human podcasters like you and me, Ashley.
00:47:59.300And so I'm asked this so much that I've actually turned the answer to this question
00:48:03.140into one of my signature public talks about the intersection of creativity and technology.
00:48:08.040If you follow the conversation around AI, oftentimes that conversation is like, oh, what's going to happen to human creative professionals, human podcasters, human screenwriters, human artists, animators, musicians, whatever.
00:48:19.180Anyway, so I spend a lot of time thinking about this, talking about this.
00:48:22.580So I was not terribly shocked to read that Hollywood Reporter piece about Inception Point AI.
00:48:28.200This company is trying to build a stable of AI talent to host podcasts and eventually become broader influencers across social media, literature and more.
00:48:39.000The Hollywood Reporter reports, amid the high cost of producing narrative podcasts and pricey short term contracts for popular hosts.
00:48:45.740The idea here is being able to own, scale, and control the talent, unlike those off-the-cuff humans, and produce shows at a minimal cost.
00:48:54.580We believe that in the near future, half the people on the planet will be AI, and we are the company that's bringing those people to life.
00:49:00.640This is from CEO Janine Wright, who previously was the chief operating officer of podcasting at Wondery, which has recently had to be organized under the changing podcast landscape following a series of questionable business decisions.
00:58:28.680I feel like that show, if you're not watching the studio on Apple TV, I just finished it and I loved it.
00:58:33.280But I think that that show gets it right of the difference between somebody who just I love movies.
00:58:38.760I've always wanted to work for a movie studio.
00:58:40.500And then when he's taken a pee at the Oscars next to the head of Netflix.
00:58:45.380Yeah, Ted Sarandos has said many times, like, I am not a movie person. I'm a tech person. And that's where the industry is now, I guess.
00:58:54.060It just makes me very sad. And I will say, like, as somebody who knows quite a bit about tech and the people who make it and how they talk about their own technology, reading that Hollywood Reporter piece, to me, a couple of pieces stood out to me.
00:59:07.540One, the fact that clearly humans are still required to make this thing exist.
00:59:12.480You know, the episodes are built by AI, but it's humans who are doing everything else.
00:59:17.660And so I think that we are being sold this idea that you can have a soup to nuts podcast with no human interference.
00:59:25.660And the article does not suggest that. It's like, oh, no, it's humans at every step of the way.
00:59:29.480And those humans are currently unpaid. The startup is currently bootstrapped and employees are not yet salaried.
00:59:36.300But the company will soon seek outside funding.
00:59:39.880So I feel like the big headline that I think might be being missed in this whole operation is that it's profitable because people are not being paid.
00:59:47.200are not making money no one because there are people involved and they're not being paid and
00:59:51.200so it's profitable yeah it's the whole ai but that's what it all feels like like a bubble that's
00:59:56.680gonna burst because it's something where like when chat gpt was really just like a bunch of people
01:00:02.320in india who would like google things really quickly for you and then as soon as the you know
01:00:07.640curtain lifts i i'm hoping that every the whole bubble just pops we have been sort of talking
01:00:13.440about it a bit i think it's coming i think uh people are less interested in ai and their
01:00:19.220commercial products people are using ai less um i i just think we are starting to see the writing
01:00:25.940on the wall that yeah maybe this this technology is not all it's cracked up to be and i think that
01:00:31.780the article about this ai podcast uh scheme to me it read the whole thing read like a please fund us
01:00:39.620advertising like oh you know we're seeking funding on this thing you know and it's so lucrative and
01:00:44.940so profitable and you listen you want to get on the ground floor of this and it's i i think that's
01:00:50.440just someone who knows this is disgusting and who has probably gotten no traction among like actual
01:00:55.100podcasters or in the industry yeah and you know coming talking to somebody who writes phenomenally
01:01:02.620well about culture and television and art and media a robot can never replace you ashley like
01:01:09.160A robot could never have the kind of nuanced, layered opinions that you have about media.
01:01:16.580A robot, like, you approach everything as such a rich text.
01:01:20.920It doesn't matter if it's, you know, like an indie film, an A24 film or something, or 90 Day Fiance.
01:01:28.180You bring such a, like, nuance to it, and a robot couldn't do that, and I wouldn't even want to listen to it try.