10/21/26 The $5K Check Illusion, Gold's Real Value & AI's Next Big Move

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, October 21st BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com https://www.moneywiseguys.com/ facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.facebook.com/moneywiseguys/ LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneywise-wealth-management-bakersfield/ Guests: Chris Diniz, CSUB CIO and Jacob Frost CMO of Linean Event Website & Details: https://www.csub.edu/nexttechkern/ The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Chris Diniz, Jacob Frost, CSUB and Lineean are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. Call or text in at 661-396-1000.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  Now, let's start the MoneyWise Show.

• 0:20Speaker 02

  And welcome to the MoneyWise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM, KERN, streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. We are your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and... I'm Emily Waite. Hey, Em. Happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. We've got some good listener interaction. Want to encourage anybody out there listening, please send us a text or call us, 661-396-1000. We love the listener interaction. Let's start there. Okay, let's get into it.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  Listener message, "Should we not expect to receive these $5,000 checks after the midterms? Or is it all a play? We could really use some relief these days, but I know the money isn't there, or is it?" Yeah, have you heard about this? Are you familiar? Vaguely. So, I'm also like, just, you know, very much from a distance.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Don't have a lot of information about what was said by President Trump. But the headline is essentially, if Republicans win the midterm, then every American will receive $5,000. It's, yeah, right? Like, at the surface, you think, well, you know, the government has trillions of dollars. So, $5,000 a citizen, okay, you know, that kind of seems feasible. There is a fundamental, there's several fundamental problems that arise from this statement. The biggest being that the government just doesn't have anywhere enough new revenue

• 2:08Speaker 02

  to be able to fund this type of payment out to Americans without substantially increasing its debt. I mean, it could do it, but Congress, first of all, would have to approve it. Both the House and the Senate would have to approve it. So, the president couldn't just put a stamp on it and send out the checks. So, if you could get congressional approval, well, then the next question is, where would the money come from? And it would, if you added up the, call it 250 million recipients in the United States, that's every adult citizen getting $5,000, it's roughly $1.3 trillion. Oh, my goodness. 1.3 trillion.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  So, I mean, that is, it's such a big number that those checks alone would add 70% to our annual budget deficit. So, it sounds like it's not happening. I mean, I just don't... More... If, even if, like, yeah, I just, it just seems like that that's impossible. And also, it would, I think it would have a huge impact on our bonds, on our Treasury bills, on the credit of the United States, because the only way that the United States, that the government would be able to pay for that, when I say the government, I mean us taxpayers would be able to pay for that, Right.

• 3:36Speaker 02

  is to increase the amount of money that we're overspending based off of our budget by 70%.

• 3:45Speaker 02

  You know, the total federal revenue is about 5.5 trillion. So, if we're spending nearly 1.5 trillion just for these checks, you know, that's over a fifth of the total budget.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  And, like I said, it puts us over budget by an additional 70%, which we're already over budget by, what, you know, 20, 30% anyways each year. So, I just, I just don't see it happening. Well, and the earlier proposals for like the $2,000 tariff rebates, like, those didn't happen. No, no, the tariff thing is another thing that can be really confusing, because the total amount of money that was generated from tariffs last year was about 264 billion. That's a quarter of a trillion. So, meaning, it wouldn't, that wouldn't even cover a quarter of what these checks would cost the country,

• 4:40Speaker 02

  even if all of that revenue that was generated from the new tariffs was given to the government. However, those refunds that are associated with those tariffs go, you know, they go largely to American importers, like businesses. And then the businesses decide how much they're going to pass along to the consumers, just like the businesses that were charged these tariffs initially were, hey, had the choice whether they could pass that cost on to the consumer. Ultimately, much of that got passed on to the consumer. And, you know, so we have paid all that largely in part from the shoulders of the American taxpayer. Right.

• 5:25Speaker 02

  The other thing that this does is if checks were sent out, that is fuel to the inflation fire. Because you have just, you're essentially dumping a trillion, over a trillion dollars into the system. And that is a recipe for further inflation. And so, you know, I just, I just don't think that it's even possible. I certainly wouldn't tell people to count on it. A president promising a check is not the same thing as Congress authorizing one, anyway. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, there you have it. Okay, all right, next question. "I hear gold, gold, gold everywhere.

• 6:07Speaker 02

  So, to the experts, say, I had $1,000 of gold, say, five years ago. How much would it be worth today? This is just an example, lol, but wonder how real this gold push really is worth." Another, yeah. Yeah, great question. There's certainly some math that I just ran to see what it would, you know, what would it, what would it cost? Or what would it be worth if you invested in gold five years ago from today? And let's, and you invested $1,000.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  So, where is my number here? I've got it. Here we go. So, doing the math, if you invested $1,000 in gold, not, you have to, you have to take out taxes. You have to take out, like, sales charges and that, and this, so you could just theoretically just go put the money into gold. Yeah. That $1,000 would turn into about $2,300, you know? So, you definitely get a... It's like a 132% increase? Yeah, yeah. It's over five years, right? Yep. So, I think that comes out to annualized about 18% a year.

• 7:32Speaker 02

  So, you know, hey, that, not a bad, not a bad run, for sure. If you were, you know, if you did that, you want to be really careful, though, about chasing returns and about chasing sort of what you, you know, whatever is the hot, you know, investment. If you're buying something that's had such a run-up over the last five years, you could be buying high. Like, it comes back to this phrase that we've said so many times, that stocks or, stock investments are the one thing that people don't want to buy when they're on sale. People want to buy those stocks when they're, like, at this point, when they're at an all-time high, because that's when they look appealing, because they think, oh, well, this is going to keep on going.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  And the reality is, it doesn't necessarily, it won't necessarily keep on going. Here's another, another way to look at this. If you took that $1,000 instead of investing it in gold over the last five years, if you had it in the S&P 500, so now you're somewhat diversified among US equity, 500 different companies, all the different industries and sectors, that $1,000 turns into $1,700. That's about a 70% increase over that five-year period. That's a $708 profit, you know, over that time. But you're doing it at a much, much lower risk. Right.

• 8:57Speaker 02

  Right? Because you're at least, you're diversified among different sectors and you're not just in a commodity or alternative, like, gold. So, there you go. There you have it. Okay, great. Next one? Yeah.

• 9:33Speaker 03

  Let's see, someone's asking about an app. Was it called Gas Buddy?

• 9:36Speaker 00

  So yesterday, me and Sammy were talking about gas prices with John Cox, and that was the app that Sammy was referring to when looking at cheaper gas.

• 9:48Speaker 03

  Oh, interesting.

• 9:49Speaker 00

  How to locate the cheaper gas.

• 9:51Speaker 03

  So it's an app that can tell you where to locate the cheapest gas compared to where you are in the country?

• 9:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, the website.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 9:58Speaker 02

  All the local news media use Gas Buddy. Yeah, like any report that you see, you know, what the average, you know, cost of gas is in Bakersfield, they'll usually quote Gas Buddy because it's a pretty nice interface. It seems like Gas Buddy's turned into a lot more sales. They're trying to, you know, sell their card, like their gas card. But it's still a useful tool. You can do a search and it will tell you based off zip code or city what the price of gasoline is. I'm looking now the cheapest, at least according to Gas Buddy, for gas stations that have updated their prices at least over the last four hours.

• 10:37Speaker 02

  I hate to say this, but would you take a guess?

• 10:39Speaker 03

  Where in Bakersfield?

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, where in Bakersfield? What would be, where would it be where it's sort of known? There's a couple of places, you have a couple of shots.

• 10:47Speaker 03

  I have no idea.

• 10:49Speaker 02

  Costco.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  Oh, certainly.

• 10:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, Costco and Sam's Club. Costco right now, $5.39 a gallon. Sam's Club, at least according to Gas Buddy, four hours ago, was $5.49 a gallon. So it's $10 cheaper.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  10 cents?

• 11:04Speaker 02

  10 cents cheaper. The average in Bakersfield is $6.17. So, I mean, and then of course, you know, depending on the, what, diesel is way more. Diesel's like over $8 a gallon. And of course, if you're buying premium or medium grade, then it's going to be more.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  Sure, sure, yeah. Okay, well, that's good to know.

• 11:28Speaker 00

  That was reflecting that we had a listener text in yesterday was saying that the news was reporting that gas has gone down 20 cents over the weekend. And Sammy was like, "Yeah, I don't see that," but he also drives diesel.

• 11:42Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yeah, right. And even if like 20 cents goes down on an $8 gallon of diesel, it's like, it's still pretty much $8.

• 11:53Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 11:54Speaker 02

  You know, it's brutal. It is so brutal.

• 11:57Speaker 03

  Hard to imagine.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  I have a mid-sized truck. I drive a Tacoma pickup truck. It's roughly a 20 gallon gas tank, and I just filled up yesterday. And it was about $130.

• 12:13Speaker 03

  Yikes.

• 12:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, like, no. Almost twice is what it was not too long ago. Yeah.

• 12:21Speaker 03

  All right, we got one more listener.

• 12:24Speaker 02

  Great.

• 12:24Speaker 03

  Message here. "We used to go to the Maya all the time, but they really have let it go. But I agree, we really hope they find a way to stay open for a long time. Did I hear there was supposed to be a music venue on their second floor when it first opened, the Maya?"

• 12:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, so when it first, well, here's the, there's some confusion. First of all, this all is being kicked up right now because Maya, the company that operates Maya Cinemas, has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy just last week, actually just six days ago on October 16th. The company announced yesterday, and I saw this in the news, that our theater here in town is going to remain open during its restructuring. So they're not planning on closing down our Maya Theater while they go through this bankruptcy restructure. And, but I think where the confusion, and they're planning on continuing their operations,

• 13:21Speaker 02

  which they have screenings, private events, bookings, and concessions. So they're going to continue that on. But I think where the confusion comes from is over the years, the property around Maya, which a lot of that has been managed or owned by the city, has had several proposals of different business people coming and proposing to do different.

• 13:40Speaker 03

  On that land?

• 13:41Speaker 02

  On that land, and in that, in that area. One of those proposals was by a local businessman that was going to, you know, kind of redevelop that area and was going to, and we were talking about like California and P.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  Right.

• 13:58Speaker 02

  That, that, that whole section there. And was going to turn it into an entertainment facilities, restaurants, commercial spaces, and, you know, places to have more nightlife. And so I think that, obviously, that did not come to play. That was in 2020, in July of 2020. And even before that, there was a proposal in 2018 from a different group that was going to propose some other, other projects and sort of, I guess, concert-type venues or live, live events.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  I see, so this is maybe conflated with, it wasn't actually at the Maya, it was just nearby?

• 14:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's like the property there.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:36Speaker 02

  That's around the Maya.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  I see.

• 14:37Speaker 02

  There's.

• 14:38Speaker 03

  That'd be quite the thing, if you could go see a movie downstairs and then, and then go up and see a concert upstairs, right?

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, man, I don't know. I'm trying to think of a place that's like that. Because, I mean, we kind of have a little experience with having a music venue in a mixed-use place, you know, it's tricky. Even with really good soundproofing and construction, it's tricky to have multiple events going on at once, so then it doesn't make it super efficient.

• 15:04Speaker 03

  We went to a movie Monday night, evening, and the show that was playing next door was loud. You could hear it, the movie that was next door, you could hear that.

• 15:12Speaker 02

  Right, yeah. This was at Edwards.

• 15:15Speaker 03

  Edwards.

• 15:16Speaker 02

  Oh, it's like, it's not called Edwards anymore, is it Regal?

• 15:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, Regal.

• 15:19Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 15:19Speaker 02

  Which was the first time I had been in Edwards.

• 15:23Speaker 00

  Since they revamped everything.

• 15:25Speaker 02

  Since they revamped everything.

• 15:26Speaker 00

  It's really nice.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  Really nice, yeah. I guess all theaters these days are moving towards that.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Comfortable seating, the lounge seating.

• 15:33Speaker 02

  Recliners, plush recliners, and it was, it was really comfortable and it was nice. But this is something that movie theaters, especially COVID, really sped up a lot of this because they're, one of their main competitors is the home theater. Like, we have.

• 15:49Speaker 03

  People having home theaters?

• 15:50Speaker 02

  People having home theaters and being able to stream so much more. There's so much more access to this stuff, and then home theaters become so much less expensive. And so you can get very much like a theater experience with the sound and visual at home.

• 16:04Speaker 03

  People aren't going to the, to the actual theaters anymore. But Stephen, you're a huge proponent of going to actual movies, right? You go to a lot of them.

• 16:09Speaker 00

  I love the movie theaters and, I mean, I could probably almost agree because it's just like one of those things where, you know, it's a smaller viewing. You know, a lot, a lot more people stay at home. They have their recliners, they have the 15 different streaming apps, and movies really only last in the theater maybe a couple of weeks.

• 16:30Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 16:30Speaker 00

  So I mean.

• 16:31Speaker 03

  And then they go right to the streaming services?

• 16:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, and we've heard from the financial side from a lot of these theaters, I mean, they get a penny on the dollar for ticket sales. That's why the concession stands are so expensive, because that's where they make their money. So, I mean, especially how the economy is now, I mean, you're talking a $100, $125 trip for two or three people.

• 16:51Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 16:51Speaker 03

  So true.

• 16:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:53Speaker 03

  So true, but you're, you're an advocate.

• 16:56Speaker 00

  I love it.

• 16:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:57Speaker 00

  That's my, that's my runaway.

• 16:58Speaker 03

  That's your what?

• 16:59Speaker 00

  That's my runaway for a couple of hours. I just turn off everything and just watch a movie.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I also think that there has been a lack of really good movies. I'm not saying that every movie that's come out has been bad.

• 17:13Speaker 03

  I think we're oversaturated is the problem. I don't think, I think that we have so many more options now that.

• 17:19Speaker 02

  At home?

• 17:20Speaker 03

  In the world because of streaming. There's so many more options for movies, so we have a much more critical eye.

• 17:27Speaker 02

  Right.

• 17:27Speaker 00

  It's almost like the same thing with music, going to concerts. A lot of them are pricing people out.

• 17:32Speaker 03

  Yep, yeah, you're right.

• 17:33Speaker 00

  I was just looking at Aerosmith tickets. I was like, "Hey, I never got to see Aerosmith." "Oh, yes, I'm not going to pay $3,000 to go see Aerosmith for one night." It's, it's.

• 17:42Speaker 02

  Is this how much they were?

• 17:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:45Speaker 02

  Where, like in LA?

• 17:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's at the Hollywood Bowl. They're doing two shows.

• 17:49Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 17:51Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 17:51Speaker 02

  $3,000?

• 17:53Speaker 00

  Yes, and that wasn't even the most expensive ones.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  Oh, man.

• 17:56Speaker 00

  I believe the nosebleeds were around $775.

• 18:00Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 18:01Speaker 00

  I'm like, "No, thanks."

• 18:01Speaker 03

  What a world we're living in.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  I get, you know, some of these bands that are, could be on their last go, you know, that have been around for a long time.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  Last hurrah, yeah.

• 18:10Speaker 02

  Last hurrah, like you, people would be willing to, just like you, like, we love Aerosmith. We're Aerosmith fans. We want to, love to be able to say I saw them live before they're gone.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  Have you been to the Sphere yet, Stephen?

• 18:21Speaker 00

  No, come, our buddy Kyle hit me up. He just went and saw Metallica and.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  I was going to say.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  They had extra tickets. They had extra tickets they were selling. I was like, "How much?" Just, "I'm not going to buy them."

• 18:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:32Speaker 00

  "Just let me know how much." He was $1,000 a ticket.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh!

• 18:36Speaker 00

  On top of driving to Vegas, getting a room, all of that. I was like, "No, thanks. I appreciate it." I'll watch it on YouTube afterwards.

• 18:42Speaker 02

  I don't think Kyle was trying to make a profit off of it. That's probably what he paid for them.

• 18:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, it was a straight-up, "That's what we paid."

• 18:49Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  Good for him, though. That guy's loved them forever.

• 18:54Speaker 00

  I think this was the 27th time he's seen them.

• 18:57Speaker 02

  Right.

• 18:58Speaker 00

  But the first time in a Sphere, I mean, that thing looks awesome.

• 19:02Speaker 03

  I've heard it's incredible.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, I would love to.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  I haven't been yet either.

• 19:05Speaker 02

  I definitely would love to see something like that, but the best-case scenario is somebody's got an extra ticket.

• 19:10Speaker 03

  Well, then you still got to probably buy it from them. They're not just going to give it to you.

• 19:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, right.

• 19:18Speaker 02

  Hey, news today. Have you heard, I'm sure you're familiar with the, a lawsuit that's been going on for a few years now against Facebook about their, yeah, about the privacy stuff.

• 19:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:30Speaker 02

  And Cambridge Analytica and all that. So the, the court is ordering 25 Meta, or Facebook's parent company, to pay $25 billion for deceiving its users about its privacy.

• 19:46Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 19:46Speaker 02

  $25 billion is so much.

• 19:53Speaker 03

  How much are they worth?

• 19:55Speaker 02

  Gosh, what is Meta?

• 19:56Speaker 03

  What's the percentage? Yeah, it's like, probably like, whatever.

• 20:01Speaker 02

  Let's see.

• 20:04Speaker 02

  I'm going to tell you what their market capitalization is right now.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, what is it?

• 20:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, $1.8 trillion. As of their stock price right now, it's $703 a share.

• 20:15Speaker 03

  Right.

• 20:16Speaker 02

  $1.8 trillion, you're right. 25 billion out of 1.8 trillion is nothing. It'd be like.

• 20:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's all context.

• 20:24Speaker 02

  It's more painful if you and I, you and I, you or I got a speeding ticket and had to pay $300.

• 20:30Speaker 03

  Right.

• 20:31Speaker 02

  Would be more of a penalty for us than I think 25 billion is for Meta. Yeah, they're just like, "Ah." So what if we interfered with global elections across the world to deceive?

• 20:44Speaker 03

  I think they can, yeah. I mean, this, this also leads into like the super rich just like paying fees and fines for things that they don't want to follow the law about, you know? Like, wasn't, was it?

• 20:59Speaker 03

  One of these tech bros that ended up paying like his annual parking tickets was like in the millions of dollars because he just doesn't wanna, he wants to park wherever he wants to park.

• 21:10Speaker 02

  He's like, I don't care.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  Tickets and he just pays him. So like the annual cost is like a drop in the bucket for him.

• 21:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, that I haven't heard that specific story, but I mean, if, if, if there is a sentiment that the rich can just get away with, with not following the rules because they have so much money, that's a recipe for

• 21:30Speaker 03

  Right.

• 21:30Speaker 02

  social unrest.

• 21:31Speaker 03

  They just, they just bank it into their budget.

• 21:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:34Speaker 03

  Do whatever they want.

• 21:35Speaker 02

  Right. You, you see this sometimes with the tax games that are played where it is, it is like an intentional effort to avoid taxes or not pay certain taxes because it's cheaper to pay the penalty and, and to pay the consequences of that penalty of that action than it is to actually pay it.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 22:00Speaker 02

  Um, and, and so there is like, what would you call that? Almost like arbitrage. It's like uh, taking, taking advantage of these two different systems that are out there. And you know, that, that is something that, that, you know, the coming back to our listeners question about the, about the Trump pledge, the $5,000 to, you know, per, per American citizen, if the midterms go a certain way is, uh, it does take a couple of steps of math that has to be done.

• 22:33Speaker 03

  Right.

• 22:34Speaker 02

  And you have to be able to know, well, what is that in perspective to the overall budget of the government? How much money would that be? And then you, you're going to come down to still billions and the difference between billions and trillions, which I'll continue to argue until I'm blue in the face that 90% of us cannot fathom, cannot even comprehend the difference between a billion and a trillion.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  Right.

• 23:01Speaker 02

  And, or a million and a billion. It's like, we know that there's an extra zero. We know that's a lot more, but thinking like in your own mind's eye, at what point do, does, does the number just become so unreasonable for you to really comprehend what that is? You know, right?

• 23:24Speaker 03

  For most people, I think it's, it's hard to fathom.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  Yeah. Like, like take, um, time, for example, like if you take like our geological time or, you know, the time that, you know, the universe has been in existence, whatever it is, 12, 13 billion years. Like, can you even, can you imagine a billion years?

• 23:44Speaker 03

  No, I can't.

• 23:45Speaker 02

  So how many years can you imagine?

• 23:47Speaker 03

  Uh, 10.

• 23:51Speaker 02

  10 years? Yeah, right. Yeah. That's a good answer. Like, okay, I can roughly see, like, imagine what could happen and how much time that actually is. Maybe you can imagine just like your own life, however, however old you are, like, okay, I'm 50. So my memory takes me since I was about eight. So I can imagine about 40 years, you know, like, okay, that seems reasonable. But now

• 24:14Speaker 03

  But it does.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  A million years? Good luck. A billion years? Forget it. And I think the same, the same rule applies to money and just sort of like this disconnect that we have and which is hard is that politicians play that against us.

• 24:29Speaker 03

  For sure.

• 24:29Speaker 02

  You know, the, the voters often are trying to vote for their wallet, but it's hard to vote for what matters most important when you have to, you have to take into account some of these massive, huge, huge numbers.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  I agree.

• 24:45Speaker 02

  All right, Em. We'll be right back, folks. Stick around. We're Money Wise.

• 24:58Speaker 02

  Welcome to Money Wise. Thanks so much for tuning in. We're your hosts today. I am Sharad Waite here with Emily.

• 25:04Speaker 03

  Yes, that's me.

• 25:04Speaker 02

  Hey, uh, we also are joined right now by a couple of guests. You know, this, we have AI as a hot topic. It's a top of a lot of people's minds, just economics of it all, as well as the, you know, the, the financial impacts.

• 25:19Speaker 03

  Cultural impacts.

• 25:20Speaker 02

  So much.

• 25:21Speaker 03

  Potential impacts.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  I would say if you look back on our listener questions, the interactions we've had with our listeners over the last year or so, I don't think a day has gone by where there hasn't been some question about AI and what that means and what it, you know, how it's impacting business and how it's impacting the economy. So this is what we, this is why we have our guests today, a couple of people who know

• 25:44Speaker 03

  Know stuff about this.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  AI. We want to welcome our guest, Jacob Frost. He's the CMO, Chief Marketing Officer of Lineon. This is a local AI consulting company, correct?

• 25:54Speaker 04

  Thank you for having us.

• 25:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, welcome Jacob. And then Chris Denise, he is the Chief Information Officer at Cal State Bakersfield.

• 26:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, thank you for having us.

• 26:02Speaker 02

  Great having you guys. So obviously you are probably, um, great conversationalists at the party, uh, with your, with your job titles. I, I can't imagine you don't both get lots of questions about, oh, how is AI? How, how, like, how much longer do we have before the robots are taking over?

• 26:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, how often does that come up?

• 26:22Speaker 05

  I, I, I like the conversations, obviously. I'm in this, in this space, but it is, it does turn into a contentious conversation. Sometimes, sometimes very opinionated people are on both sides. Um, but it's a, it's a fun time because you, you open your phone or open your computer and there's a new thing that's been developed and it's always changing. Um, and so you got to stay on your feet, um, and make sure you're well equipped to answer those questions because there are a lot of like, um, uh, there's a lot of doomer, doomerism around it. And then there's a lot of optimism around it. So there's a lot of good camps that you could, you could find yourself, but it's a definitely a fun conversation. That's the philosophically and then just on a, on the tech side, it's, it's fun.

• 27:05Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 27:05Speaker 04

  You know, definitely. It's a, you know, it's kind of a split story. You, you have people on one side that love it, think it's the best thing ever. And on the other side, you have people thinking it's the end of the world.

• 27:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  So, uh, as with any new technology that comes into place, that, that becomes the question. The difference is with AI, it came in fast.

• 27:21Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 27:21Speaker 04

  And people didn't have a time to adjust or rethink what they're doing. And I'm just going to point to, because you're, you're talking about AI being a hot topic, topic. It's definitely a hot topic within the, uh, the colleges as well, the universities. There's, there's a recent, uh, National Association of College and Employer Survey that came out. And they're saying a third of jobs that are coming out for entry jobs are expecting AI use.

• 27:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:43Speaker 04

  And the other side of the coin, a third of graduating seniors think they don't need AI. And so, uh, you know, we have a program that we're, uh, going to be talking about soon that helps bridge that gap.

• 27:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'm really curious about those statistics. And another thing that I'm witnessing is there is a, I'm going to stereotype the younger, younger crowd, which is generally the younger crowd seem to be a little bit more open to new technology than the older crowd is. And yet I am seeing a pushback from the younger crowd about, about this, almost like it's wrapped up into globalization, uh, commercialization and the, and them feeling this is just another thing that's going to make it impossible for me to ever afford a home or get a job.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  Are you seeing that as well?

• 28:31Speaker 05

  Yeah. So there, there's, there's both those gaps. So what we're seeing, the older generations actually adopt this fairly quick.

• 28:38Speaker 02

  Right.

• 28:38Speaker 05

  And that's probably because a lot of them are office workers. And so this, uh, speeds up their process pretty immediately. Um, and so the adoption rate on older, you know, 45 plus generation is actually pretty surprisingly, or surprising. Uh, the younger generation, there is that pushback, but, um, it's kind of a little bit younger than millennial. Millennial has kind of been in the workforce and are, uh, adopting it. Um, but that younger generation, I think have been burned by technology, um, especially social media has been kind of a detriment. I think that Meta lawsuit recently in the past few months kind of is proof of, of that. Um, and so they, they are hesitant. And so AI is growing, but I think we're also seeing a resurgence of this in person. And that is what's going to have added value

• 29:23Speaker 05

  because that genuine interaction like we're having right now.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  Right.

• 29:26Speaker 05

  Case to face is going to increase and have that unique value that's going to ever grow. So those in-person concerts and those gatherings are, are going to be, those clubs that kind of had fallen back with technology are going to now see a resurgence and, and are. And so, um, I think that is going to be kind of the, the yin and the yang. Um, and so those in-persons are, are going to have a ton of value, um, and already have.

• 29:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, maybe, Chris, you could speak from, from more of an academic aspect. How's this impacted the university?

• 30:00Speaker 04

  Uh, you know, so it's definitely been a big impact. Like I said, the technology came in, uh, very fast. It didn't, it hit our, our faculty in a way where they had to readdress, you know, readdress their, their pedagogy, change what they're doing, because now what they're worried about is students are going to take the shortcut out and use AI. Uh, with that being said, I think it's a good, good time and a good opportunity to revisit what we're teaching, how we're teaching it and what we really value out of that. And so the, and we have a number of faculty that are approaching that and that, in that way, we, we have a program called Sparks that we've partnered with, uh, OpenAI. And so these faculty have gotten, you know, stipends so that way they can enhance and build those programs and develop our students for the workforce. With that being said, going back to the, you know, interactions with both our faculty and our students, I will

• 30:44Speaker 04

  say our students, especially in, in areas where they may be more impacted by what perceived impact of AI, is that, uh, you know, our art students is an example. They're worried that all their art is being replaced by their originality. But I think they, at the same time, uh, it's also bringing to light what Jacob just said here, which is that originality that what matters most from people. And so that will actually shine through in the end. And using AIs was maybe an idea generator, not to do it for you.

• 31:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, Jacob, this company is new, it's fairly new, right? Yeah, so what problem were you and your company seeing in Kern County that made you realize that a company like this was needed here?

• 31:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, so Linian started basically two years ago by Jim Damien, he's our founder. And what the gap we saw, or the opportunity that we saw is AI gives you incredible tools and it basically democratizes technology. And so now companies don't have to go out to San Francisco and get the software delivered to them and it maybe fits their business. Linian comes in and builds that custom software built for Kern County. And it works for the companies and industries that we have here. And we're all local employees. And so we know this culture and what they need. And then we can pair the right technology and build exactly what they want.

• 32:07Speaker 05

  And so that's been the big advantage, is like this custom bespoke technology for all these companies and organizations in Kern County.

• 32:16Speaker 02

  You know, I've quoted Nvidia's CEO multiple times on this show where he has been asked about the displacement of jobs from AI. And his answer has been that people are not going to lose their job to AI. They're going to lose their job to people who know how to use AI.

• 32:32Speaker 05

  That's definitely.

• 32:32Speaker 02

  It kind of seems right.

• 32:35Speaker 05

  It's a pivot. So I think maybe your work day is going to evolve drastically and mine has drastically. It changes week in, week out. And I'm in this world. But you know, some of the first people that they thought would, developers were going to lose all their jobs. Now, now the local plumbing company is like, oh, I kind of need a developer now and I can build exact custom software for my business. And that never existed.

• 33:00Speaker 02

  They couldn't afford that.

• 33:02Speaker 05

  Couldn't afford an engineer to do that. Where it wouldn't really make sense. And so, but now it makes sense. So all these like small, smaller companies are like, oh, I see the value here. Or they're empowering their existing employee base and they're building unique cool tools for themselves. So it's definitely both sides.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  You know, Chris, out at CSUB, I have a friend who is a professor, not at CSUB, at a different university. But I was talking to him about his workload and how he uses AI to grade and do different things. And I said, well, you're getting this from the students too. He goes, yeah, he goes, and he kind of shook his head. He's like, yeah, I question what I'm doing sometimes because it's just like my bot against their bot. It's like, we just have our two bots fighting each other. And this is what my job has become. It's, it is, there is a bit of an arms race, I'm guessing, between some of these forces.

• 33:56Speaker 04

  You know, to a degree, yes. And it goes back to what I said earlier, is that's why the rethinking model. And I'm actually going to school right now. I'm continuing my education for my doctorate. And I had a faculty member approached it very, I guess uniquely, and I liked it quite a bit. Last minute, he said, instead of a written assignment, which AI could easily do for you. He said, I want you to give three minutes with me and talk about what you know.

• 34:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:22Speaker 04

  And that was.

• 34:23Speaker 03

  So interesting.

• 34:24Speaker 04

  That was very impactful for me, actually, at the end of it.

• 34:26Speaker 02

  I'll bet, I'll bet, yeah. That makes, that makes a huge, huge difference. The, we talk about AI and AI has been around for decades. AI has been around for at least 30 or 40 years, right? It's, I think what's happening though, as one of you mentioned, is that it's progressing so quickly now. That it's, now it's becoming, you know, the movies are becoming reality all of a sudden. And I've noticed it just, it's, I was an early adopter, been very excited and very pro this. I understand the dark side of this technology, but I've been excited about this from day one. And when these large language models first came out, I was like, this, this is a game changer.

• 35:08Speaker 02

  Like right away, I could see that this was happening, but it certainly had its limitations. But over the last couple of years, it has been shocking. Every model that comes out, whoever's putting out their newest model, it's like, okay, this is like, this is absolutely crazy. How much better it continues to get, every iteration just better and better. If we continue at that rate, what does, like, I know this is maybe the same question I'm asking before, but as somebody who like follows the markets and the economy, there's a huge unknown in my world about how do we, how do we make that transition? How do we make that transition to where it's just, like, these tools are so adaptable?

• 35:53Speaker 03

  This is a softball question, you guys.

• 35:56Speaker 05

  So it will be different and it's hard to predict the future. And that's why, you know, all the jobs lost gains a lot more traction than the jobs that will be created. Because your imagination has limitations on, you know, what a social media manager was in 2000. It's like, what is that? You know?

• 36:13Speaker 02

  Right.

• 36:14Speaker 05

  And now everyone has it for their local business. And so that's going to be this world. So it is the recursive learning. So, you know, Claude is basically building their own product with their product. And it's like, whoa, the speed of things that they can turn around. And it's just going to be a different, different world that will be different drastically. But I think, like humans do, they navigate it and they'll put it to their best case.

• 36:41Speaker 03

  We are very adaptable humans.

• 36:42Speaker 02

  You are optimistic about the human race.

• 36:45Speaker 05

  Yes, again, it's still software and maybe this will be clipped in the future. But at the end of the day, humans are pushing the buttons. And so you can do it nefariously, but I think humans are still in charge and will be. It is software at the end of the day.

• 37:02Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 37:03Speaker 05

  It's, that's all it is.

• 37:05Speaker 02

  That, that, that is true. Humans are in charge at the end of the day. But if, if the bots continue to open up Pandora's box after Pandora's box, things that did not come from the human mind and could not come from the human mind, it would take decades for us to come up with some of these. Look at some of the mass solutions that have been coming up over the last few weeks. It's like all of a sudden, for the first time in history, we have this like alien intelligence that is now guiding our future. It's not human breakthrough from a software program that we came up with. It's like, no, there's, there's information that is generating on its own, answers that are being generated without our, without our input.

• 37:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, I, much like what you said at the beginning, the early models for the LLMs, the large language models would hallucinate. And you could still see the value, but they were hallucinating. I think as time progresses, we'll actually have better control over these models and the results. And that's what the improvements will be, will have a much better control.

• 38:06Speaker 04

  So, you know, when AI first came out, they purposely stayed away from all the regulations and everything for that, for that reason. So it could grow and grow rapidly without those controls. Now, recently, we've, there's been a number of regulations that have been introduced. What probably the more recent ones that have come out and they're still developing them is how do you audit AI? How do you make sure it's right? Because even though we're talking about it, it created a possible solution, is that solution correct? We don't know, how do we make sure it's right? What do they, how did they get there? There's a lot of questions that come out of it. And so we're still not quite at the route where we can completely just let it run on its own.

• 38:41Speaker 02

  Right.

• 38:41Speaker 04

  Because as Jacob said, it still requires that human intervention, that oversight, that involvement. I mean, we're still, in a lot of ways, still coming up with a lot of the great ideas.

• 38:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:50Speaker 04

  And we'll continue to do so, but with almost, almost think like the Six Million Dollar Man, right? Now we're enhanced.

• 38:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. The enhancements that we've had, technology advancements that we've had in the past that have really launched us and brought us into a new, a new era. You can, you can go back and go, you know, locomotive and steam engine, all these different things. But most recently, we remember well enough, internet, literally like the internet coming into our world in the late 90s and like websites and all of those things. That had decades of government funding, institutional funding, but very much government run. Because it was such oversight and such a big, a big program, our nuclear program also. Like no individual, single, right, private business is going to be able to fund something like this and come up with a technology like this.

• 39:41Speaker 02

  But now we have this, now we have AI, we're literally just a handful of companies, most of them US-based, that have come up with this technology without any need for the government at all. So now it seems like the government's been caught with their pants down. Like the government is now trying to come into an ecosystem that they are clueless about. It's like when I see, if I ever see a congressional hearing that has anything to do with finance or investments, you can see how our congressmen don't know anything about the economy or about finance or investments. I'm sure if you guys saw, or if you've seen any of these congressional hearings about AI or technology are going, oh, you realize the senator doesn't know jack about technology.

• 40:23Speaker 02

  And so that seems like a potential recipe for disaster. Who's, so we have self-regulators? Are we supposed to expect these companies to regulate themselves?

• 40:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, they did do, they did set up some guardrails by themselves, the big four or five players. And so that's, that's in place.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  So we're just like crossing our fingers, I hope they're got our best interests in mind.

• 40:49Speaker 05

  I don't know if there's any ever some magic dust. But what, what is going to keep a lot of people in check is, there are private models like the Claude and the OpenAI, but there are also open source models. And so those open source models are only, you know, they're three months behind the current frontier labs. And so those, those naturally keep them in check. And so that is one way the market is somewhat self-regulating because it's, it's out there. It's code and people are in control of it and pivot and make a different model.

• 41:29Speaker 02

  Some of these frontier models though, like they have voluntarily said, hey, you guys and government agencies, check out this model before we make it public because this can hack all of your systems. Like this has literally happened just in the last six months or a year.

• 41:43Speaker 05

  From a chief marketing officer, that's great marketing. Especially when your IPO is looming. Our model is so powerful, it could hack into any nuclear weapon. It's like, yeah, that's a $2 trillion IPO, I think.

• 41:57Speaker 02

  These CEOs have a lot of hyperbole and they're milking it. But it's still, they're, and we're seeing some of the dangers if some of these models are not tested and some of the agents that get rogue, right?

• 42:08Speaker 04

  Right, and there's still some public aspects that get involved here. I mean, I'm not going to say names, but there were some models that were, end up being used for government purposes, military. And they've, you know, voiced their concerns because the public voiced their concerns and they ended up pulling back out. So there is some self-monitoring regulations that have occurred. But even recently, going back to the laws, one of the, I think it's. SB eight oh five, eight fifteen or eight thirteen. I'm going to get this wrong.

• 42:35Speaker 02

  California, California. Yeah.

• 42:37Speaker 04

  And we're, you know, both Anthropic and OpenAI have kind of come forward and said, hey, we're willing to be part of it, to be audited, so that way you can ensure our software models are what they're supposed to be and doing the right thing.

• 42:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, California has been, it seems like, on the, on the leading edge of trying to regulate this. Other countries also have, have made some efforts, but federally I don't see a whole lot. But fortunately, we have resources right here in our own yard that people can go to, to actually hear even more intelligent discussion than what we're having today about AI, including a couple of workshops.

• 43:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, let's talk about what's coming up for you guys and how this impacts us here locally.

• 43:19Speaker 04

  I would love to talk about that. CSUB is offering its second annual Next Tech Current event, and this is where we're bringing 25 sessions, mostly around AI. It could be things about robotics and security as well. We cover everything from just the basics of how do I use AI to all the way to how do I get technical behind, behind the hoods, under the hood, so to speak. What we're at the event, you know, what I like to say is we're bringing global innovation meets local opportunity. And this is where we've been lucky with Linian as a presenting sponsor, because we're also, at that event, we're going to announce a new CSUB product that has been built by CSUB and Linian.

• 44:02Speaker 02

  Oh, sweet.

• 44:03Speaker 04

  Jointly.

• 44:04Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 44:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's.

• 44:05Speaker 03

  So in a, in a real life example of what Linian can do?

• 44:08Speaker 05

  Yes, it's very real life. And then we, we, a lot of students have actually helped build the product as well. And so it's very exciting, that collaboration between university and the private sector and kind of proving the model.

• 44:23Speaker 03

  Help testing out the models and stuff like that, or?

• 44:25Speaker 05

  Uh, building an actual product that CSUB is going to be using, uh, live after the 28th.

• 44:32Speaker 04

  So, yeah, this is all very intentional. Going back to the, the person element, right? And original, we actually have a Rio Fell, Rio's Fellows Program. And so to that, I probably just kind of spilled the beans a little too much on something, but, and these are students that represent each college. And so we got from the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, you know, arts and humanities, you know, social sciences and education, and our business group. And they all represent each of these, each of these colleges bringing their perspective. And I'll just give an example, talking about some of the concern here from a student we had before. One of them was from arts and humanities. He was worried that some of it wasn't being his original theme. And so, and we showed him how to use the tools in a productive way while he can still be original. And he, he

• 45:14Speaker 04

  learned to embrace it and realized it is that much more powerful, allowed him to develop and come up with things that he never thought was possible before. And so they worked closely with Linian to develop this. And one of the students are actually creating a survey about how do you like to interact with this tool? And that's going to be coming out during the event as well, and, and getting feedback from our community, as well as from our campus.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  Does, does attending need to have a technical background to attend?

• 45:40Speaker 05

  No.

• 45:41Speaker 03

  Or benefit from the, from the process?

• 45:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, so we were trying to catch everyone. So from someone that's just curious enough to open up their, their phone or their laptop and like, I want to learn about AI, we, we cater to that especially. And then we have all the developers, like you said, that there's a track four and five where developers are going to nerd out on harnesses and, and whatever else they, they build. So that, we catch it all. And then there'll be philosophical discussions as well. So people can talk about the news of the day and try to figure out where this world is going. And so it kind of catches it all.

• 46:20Speaker 04

  And to kind of give the extremes here in terms of, you know, who we're catering to, our other sponsor is AC Electric. And both AC Electric and Linian are having lunch with students during the event. And so, because this is also kind of a workforce development kind of effort. We're inviting students get to come in for free. Everybody else got to pay $95, but it does come with lunch and breakfast. And, and you get to hear a great keynote from Amazon Web Services. So you get to hear from the.

• 46:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was going to ask about the keynote. This is, this is a big, a big player in this world, and at least cloud services and AWS, which is Amazon's cloud service, right? And this is a, explain who he is.

• 46:58Speaker 04

  So his name is Adam Sutherland, and he's the, he's the head of the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center.

• 47:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:06Speaker 04

  And so his experience comes from the private sector as well as the public sector. And, and he, he looks at ways on how to, you know, bring in AI into our workforce and in a productive way, so that way we're, you know, have a net positive creation of jobs, not, not negative. And so his talk is going to be around, you know, making sure that we're thinking about, you know, our entry level jobs and making certain that we're addressing this and building this workforce so that they can, they can be able to partake in that.

• 47:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. So you're going to have all kinds. This isn't just for students. This isn't just for the, those on campus. This is anybody that's interested in wanting to learn more about, about this.

• 47:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, we'll even have high schoolers there. So high schoolers, college kids, a lot of students will be there, obviously, at CSUB. And then it's open to the public and a lot of industry is going to be there. So it's, it's a great event. And we're pretty excited to kind of combine the two and, and prove that jobs aren't going away. And we're, we're living proof that Linian's built off a lot of CSUB students. I think maybe 89% of our

• 48:06Speaker 02

  Very cool.

• 48:07Speaker 05

  our CSUB graduates. So we're, we're proving it and showing a good use case.

• 48:13Speaker 02

  Very cool.

• 48:14Speaker 04

  So we're already at 500 people.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was going to ask, how, how, yeah, are there still tickets available?

• 48:18Speaker 04

  Still tickets available. We encourage people to, to partake in it. They can go to nexttechcurran.com. They, they also have the opportunity to sign up with training from Linian at a, at a reduced price as part of the event for $150. Normally it costs more. So this is an opportunity to get a four hour training session with Linian, the experts of our community.

• 48:38Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 48:39Speaker 04

  They kind of say, how do we use it? And how do we can take away some effective tools on how to make their, their areas more productive.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  So I mean, that's a great opportunity for somebody to, to sort of pad their resume a little bit, right? Hey, I went through this training, you know, whatever training.

• 48:51Speaker 05

  It'll be a great training. So Jim Damian, who's out of town right now, but he'll be leading the training. It's the day before and it's a four hour and it's going to be intimate. So it's going to be one on one. I'll be in the crowd working the, the, with people on, on their different AI product, projects. And so it's a very unique

• 49:10Speaker 03

  Very cool.

• 49:11Speaker 05

  experience. And you'll, you'll take away a lot of tools and you'll build it right there that morning.

• 49:16Speaker 02

  Uh, great, great stuff, guys. Thanks so much for taking the time to come on the show.

• 49:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, thanks for being here.

• 49:20Speaker 02

  That's Chris Denise, he's from CSUB's the CIO there, and Jacob Frost, the CMO at Linian. Uh, thank you, guys. Again, want to remind everybody and our listeners that if you've missed this program or any of our past programs, you can go subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast. It's commercial free and on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And of course, remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 49:49Speaker 01

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.