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Speaker 2: It's a great honor to be sitting in for a
Pete this afternoon chat with you, taking your calls at
seven oh four five seven oh eleven ten. That's seven
oh four, five seven oh eleven ten. We're talking about DOGE,
the Department of Government Efficiency, as well as other agencies
within the new administration. Spent some time earlier talking about
Robert F. Kennedy Junior and some of the work going
on over at DHHS, the Department of Health and Human
Services estimated to be cutting about ten thousand employees there.
A lot of this, of course, is happening at all
levels of the federal government and all of these different cabinets, positions,
all of these different secretaries, whether it's EPA or HHS.
These cuts, these changes are happening at a rapid rate.
Before we get back to the Brett Baar interview, I
want to jump back to our phone lines. Alex is
hanging online one Alex, Good afternoon. You're on the Peak
Counter Show with Nick Craig.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Yeah, I just had a couple of the
points you were talking about the transparency of the dose
efforts and that being the gold standard, and why it's
not the gold standard.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, I have a couple.
Speaker 3: Of issues with the transparency. One of them is like
they're putting a lot of information out there, but it's
been shown that a lot of that information is inaccurate
and they're having to continually go in and correct it.
The second point is that the actual results of the
cuts that they're making, when you look into what the
effects are on actual real people in the world, a
lot of those results are harmful, whether it's just people
losing their jobs and.
Speaker 2: Outside of people on hold on hard outside of people
losing their jobs. Talk about the harmful, the harmful of
facts and results.
Speaker 3: I mean some of this sure, like some of the
stuff like the USI aid cuts being one of those,
like I understand there's a lot of things in other
countries and that I don't think we should be spending
money on. Like I agree with the principle of that,
but the speed with which those cuts were made without
making an effort to try to help people find other
ways to address those issues and stuff, it's kind of
abandoning a lot of people that we had agreements with,
commitments that we had made. Like if you made a
two year contract to help somebody, I think you should
honor that to your contract. If you don't want to
do that anymore, after your two years is up, you
don't do the contract again, you know. But I think
just yanking it out immediately almost or in some cases
literally overnight, just cutting off all of their funding and
leaving people hanging around the world, I think causes a
lot of problems, and it is causing real harm to
actual people in some of those places. The third point
was is to me indegative of what is happening at
the at the in the Trump administration with Musk as well. Yeah,
they're putting a lot of information out, but I feel
like a lot of it is self dealing. And let
me tell you why. The first one is they're putting
a lot of information out, but they're putting that information
out on truth Social, which is a for profit company
that Trump's affiliated with, and on X, which is a
for profit company that Musk owns.
Speaker 2: All that's on the doge website though too.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, yeah, but like everybody's going to the doge website. Now,
everybody's getting that information off of.
Speaker 2: X and sure, but it's but it is all available
on doze dot gov. I mean, just because people are
reading it, and of course you're sharing it on X
because it's a social media platform. But there is an
official website, doge dot gov that's got all of that
on there.
Speaker 3: Right, But every headline, whether you think it's brilliant or
whether you think it's outlandish, every headline is causing people
to go to their for profit social media platforms, which
earns them money. And I'm not saying that that's necessarily
like corruption. I'm just saying, well, you know, but you're.
Speaker 2: You're alluding to it, But you're alluding to it. So
where should it be.
Speaker 3: They every time they create a headline, they make money,
and so.
Speaker 2: So where should so where should the information then be relayed? Alex?
I mean if if if if putting it on dosee
dot gov is not enough, I mean what should the
Should the federal government be buying advertising on television radio
stations to promote I mean how else would you get
the information out?
Speaker 3: I'm okay with the being out there, but are they
are they intentionally doing it?
Speaker 2: But how I'm asking you.
Speaker 3: On other but are they putting out information on other
platforms besides the ones that they own?
Speaker 2: The dog dot gov is a federal government website. I
mean nobody, I mean you and I own it. Sure,
So where else should they put the information?
Speaker 3: Are they putting things out on YouTube videos? Are they
putting things out in statements to the evening news like
we're absolutely this information of it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's it's transitting. I mean it goes
on doge dot gov and you know there are press
releases and information and then that gets scooped up by
the media and it's and it's reported.
Speaker 3: The main point of that is that every time they
can create a headline, it does result in them making
personal money. There's an incentive there for them to continue
to create headlines. I mean, Trump himself has said there's
no such thing as bad press, anything that gets my
name in people's mouths, is good for the Trump brand,
and he's still living up to that. The other thing
concerned to me is that I just I'm worried that
these are a bunch of super rich people that are
looking out for themselves instead of us. I feel like
they've sold us a product that turned out to not
be what they promised it would be and what we
wanted it to be.
Speaker 2: Like what, I hear you, and I and I appreciate
what you're saying. So what if you were running Doze
for the day, Alex, if you were in charge of
Doze just starting at midnight tonight, what would you do
differently tomorrow to to to fy some of those issues
that you're describing.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, no one that's going to be overseeing,
whether you think it's they have the authority to or not,
is beside the point. No one who's doing this should
be in a in a conflict of interest with government contracts.
And Musk is in a conflict of interest with that
he is overseeing departments that he himself has for profit
contracts with, and that is a massive but all.
Speaker 2: Of that had to be disclosed. I mean, when you
become an employee of the government, even a special employee,
you are required to submit information to the federal government.
And talking about all of those disclosures, that is all
screened and that is all approved by onboarding within the
federal government.
Speaker 3: But that speaks to what you're saying about how transparent
they're being and how they're just putting it all out there.
Just because we know about it doesn't make it right.
He is, but it's not illegal, very I know, but
he's very public that he has a conflict of interest.
We know that he's got contracts with SpaceX and government
all this kind of stuff. Just because he's saying it's
there does not make it right. Just because he says
if he if there's a conflict of interest, I'm sure
people will say something, and people have been saying something,
and they're just ignoring people saying stuff. And he's just
doing what he wants to do.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I don't want he's not doing what he wants to.
I mean, he's a special government employee. He's not He's
not Jesus Christ. I mean he's not. He doesn't have
the ability to to do whatever he wants. He has
to go through the channels and In most cases, DOGE
is not doing anything. They are pointing out to agencies
what needs to be cut, and then it's the agencies
that are doing it. Doze does not have the authority
to change things. Really, no, they don't. I mean they do.
That's not how it's set up.
Speaker 3: Elon Musk can't walk in, not in charge of anything.
Is that what you're telling me.
Speaker 2: No, that's not what I'm saying. You're you're purposefully trying
to flip my words. Elon Musk does not have the
authority to cut money from for example, HHS. What he
does have the authority to.
Speaker 3: Do just own the news saying we cut this, and
we cut that, and I cut this and I cut that.
Speaker 2: Because he's bringing the information.
Speaker 3: So he is not making any cuts, and those is
not making company.
Speaker 2: And that that's that's what's going on. Elon Musk does
not have the authority to go into an agency and
physically adjust their budget. He's not doing that.
Speaker 3: Those is not doing that.
Speaker 2: Not not not under my understanding. They are providing the
information to the agencies, They get access to their computer
systems that are invoicing systems, whatever it might be, and
then they say, hey, this is all of the stuff
that we found, and then it's those agencies that are
doing the cuts. That's that's how I understand it.
Speaker 3: The Department of Education is cutting itself.
Speaker 2: Correct, I mean Secretary McMahon is overseeing that. Did you
not watch the press conference with her last week?
Speaker 3: But so all?
Speaker 2: No? No, no, no, not sure, Alex. I mean you're
you're making the claim that they're not doing Did you
watch her speak last week when Trump signed the executive order?
My question is if no, no, no, you've been not
answering my question. Hold on, hold on, you've been You've
been talking, and I'm asking you. I mean, did you
watch the press conference last week?
Speaker 3: I did not?
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, then how can you How can you call
in and say that and make those comments about the
Department of Education?
Speaker 3: To me, it feels that if all of it, it doesn't
matter how it.
Speaker 2: Feels to you. The question is did you actually listen
to the information? Is the answer yes or no?
Speaker 3: I did not listen to that press conference?
Speaker 2: Okay, So then how can you have an opinion.
Speaker 3: Listen to it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: You shouldn't have an opinion based on the pattern. It
is broad spectrum across all of these government agencies, that
the people at these agencies are filing lawsuit after long
sleep because of the cuts that those is making to
these agencies.
Speaker 2: It's the it's the those recommendations that is being made
to the agency heads who are Trump's cabinets picks that
are following through on his agenda. That's the processor. That's
what's happening.
Speaker 3: I feel like if you think that Elon Musk and
those are not the ones calling the shots, that feels
like itself.
Speaker 2: But we're not discussing whether they're calling the shots or not.
You're indicating and making the point that Elon Musk himself
has the authority to make these wide sweeping changes within
the government. And that's just not true. He is making
the recommendations and the cabinet officials who happen to be
in agreement with Trump and Elon Musk are following through
on the recommendations. There is a huge distinction there.
Speaker 3: Well, it's to me it's semantics, because well.
Speaker 2: But it's not semantics. Alex, I appreciate the call. I
got to hit a break, Alex, I appreciate the call,
but it's not semantics. I mean, it's very clear Elon
Musk does not have the authority the cabinet does. The
secretaries have the authority, the president has the authority. The
recommendations are made, and it look turns out, as we
have seen over the last seventy some odd days, the
administration is working lock and step. The administration is working together.
All of the various secretaries, all of the cabinet people
have the same goal in mind. So they're all working together.
They're taking the recommendations and they're going, Wow, I can't
believe we're spending eight hundred million dollars on a survey
about trees. That's so unbelievably stupid. Let's stop doing that.
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Speaker 2: We're talking about Elon Musk. We're talking about the Department
of Government Efficiency, and it's just kind of going off
the last call. We were talking with Alex about his
concerns with DOGE. And there's nothing wrong with having concerns.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with saying I don't like
what's going on. But what I'm truly shocked by, and
you heard the comment a little bit earlier from Elon
Musk on the interview last night with Brett Baer is
the information is just not accurate. I mean, the amount
of misinformation surrounding Doge. The Department of Government Efficiency and
what's going on is staggering. And what makes it so
crazy is all of the information is readily available. We're
not getting the information from anonymous sources. This is not
coming from leaked information with inside DOGE. They publish all
of this stuff online where you can literally go and
read all of it for yourself. There is a website
DOGE dj a ge dot gov doge dot gov that
shows everything that's going on. When they find that there
are tens of thousands of people that are over one
hundred and fifty years old that are still listed as
alive in receiving payments within the Social Security system administration system,
they're publishing that information online and so it's hard for
me to argue that this is not a good thing.
It's hard for me to say this amount of transparency
isn't good. What more could you possibly want. The concern
is that some of the information is being published on
X and somehow what Elon Musk is enriching himself. That's
a straw man argument. I mean, it's being promoted all
over the Internet, and just because X happens to be
a very popular platform right now, I don't think Elon
Musk is getting rich posting on the at doge account
on AX. I just don't think that that's the case.
I really find it. I would find it hard to
believe that he is personally enriching himself at a major,
major scale by publishing information on AX. I just I
don't think that's the case at all. So let's transition
away from Elon Musk. One of the other individuals on
the DOGE team is the co founder of Airbnb. He
is working within the Department of Government Efficiency. He was
one of the DOGE guys on the panel last night
with Brett Bher. Brett asked him some questions and then
he started talking about the retirement system. Take a listen
to this, Joe Gabiam besides Elon, you're one of several
billionaires here, co founder of Airbnb, and you wanted to
help out.
Speaker 4: I bumped into Anthony and Elon probably back in February,
and they tell me something about a mine that's dealt
with retirement, and they said that it needs somebody to help
out to fix retirement in the government. I love the challenge,
so I jumped on board. And it turns out there
is actually a mine in Pennsylvania that houses every paper
document for the retirement process in the government. Now picture this,
This giant cave has twenty two thousand filing cabinets stacked
ten high to house four hundred million pieces of paper.
It's a process that started in the nineteen fifties and
the largely hasn't changed in the last seventy years. And
so as he dug into it, we found a retirement
cases that had so much paper they had to fit
it on a shipping palate. So the process takes many months,
and we're going to make it just many days. We'd
be digitized or absolutely so this will be an online
digital process that will take just a few days at most.
And I really think, you know, it's an injustice to
civil servants who are subjected to these processes that are
older than the age of half the people watching your
show tonight. So we really believe that the government can
have an Apple Store like experience beat if we designed great,
easier experience modern systems.
Speaker 2: Because right now it's by hand. Yes, the retired process
is all by paper, literally, with people carrying paper in
Manila envelopes into this gigantic mind so they can I mean,
how insane is that we live in twenty twenty five.
And I've heard this before. It takes literally months to
retire from the federal government. All of the information is
sitting in Iron Mountain, which is a mine in Pennsylvania
that stores all of these documents, and it's all done
on paper. The system essentially hasn't changed in seventy years.
When you talk about inefficiencies, this is another one of
the shining examples. How can anybody in the age that
we're living right now with the amount of technology, by
the way, not that's just available, but the federal government
spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year on technology.
With all of the money they spend, I mean, they
spend eight hundred million dollars just on some stupid survey
about trees. But all of the hundreds of billions of
dollars that they spend on technology, their retirement process is
still one hundred percent manually done by paper. And I'm
supposed to believe that government's just chugging along away at
one hundred percent. There the status quo is where we
need to continue. How is that appropriate for you? How
are you opposed to that? Being a quicker process, a
more efficient process. Not only is it a huge waste
on the taxpayers that fund these completely antiquated systems, but
how about the civil servants. You just heard there from
the airbnbs of one of the co founders of Airbnb.
What a slap in the face to the civil servants
that have given their entire lives working for the federal government.
Oh hey, it's going to take you eight months to
retire so we can run a bunch of paperwork back
and forth between some iron mountain mine in Pennsylvania. I mean,
there's no more bigger slap in the face than that.
But that's the status quo, that's the system. That is
what we have deemed is acceptable from our federal government.
And I say that because nothing's been willing. Nobody's willing
to change it. Nobody in the past has been willing
to change it. We have gone through administration after administration
after administration that has said this is okay, this is
totally acceptable, normal and reasonable paper retirements, no digitization of
it at all. We're just gonna store it all in
a mine somewhere in Pennsylvania. And who cares if it
takes you eight months to retire. We have said that
that's okay. We have told our government this is an
appropriate thing to go forward. I mean, it's completely remarkable.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this show, you know I try
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Speaker 2: For noon, we were talking about just before the break,
the Department of Government Efficiency and we heard there from
the co founder of Airbnb about modernizing technology and bringing
things into the modern age. This ties in with a
big announcement made in North Carolina earlier this week. It
surrounds artificial intelligence. To get some more details on that,
this afternoon, Teresa Opeka from Carolina Journal dot Com joins
us on the Pete Calendar Show. Teresa, AI's been all
the rage over the last couple of years. Walk us
through this announcement out of the State Treasurer's office.
Speaker 5: Sure, thanks so much, Nick for having me this afternoon.
So yeah, that took place yesterday at North Carolina Central
University Student Center. In fact, they are opening their Institute
for Artificial Intelligence and Equity Research in May. So the
treasure Briner figured that was a good place to make
the announcement. So what he did he said, he's partnering
for our twelve week agreement with open AI that he
says it's going to modernize systems and streamline the data process.
Is all while providing more efficient and effective services for
taxpayers and local governments while saving money. So basically he said,
you know, first off, there is a fine red line
between what they can do this when information can be
shared with AI versus like say state health plan information
anything like that, that's a no go because it's got
all private information. You've got HIPO rules. What they're looking
at is the Local Government Commission, the local and like
the different municipalities across the state, and also their other
where they look for getting cash back as far as businesses,
things like that nature stuff that is not public or
not private rather but public information where they can go
in and you know, actually make things more efficient. Like
for instance, local Government Commission, there's audits that are done
every year, right, this is the time of the year
when the local governments get their audits into the state treasurers. Off,
there's hundreds and hundreds of pages. What this could do
is take all those hundreds of pages, put it into
AI and basically spit out any like red flags. Say
there's five red flags that the commission might see that
here's a warning you're going to be over extending yourself
or you're going to be in financial trouble. Versus going
through all those pages of information. It's supposed to cut
down waste and really speed up the time and efficiency
of the department.
Speaker 2: Teresa, you've been following state government for quite some time,
and I know you've had the pleasure of clicking on
a link available somewhere on a state government website, only
to be opened up to a three hundred page PDF
that you've got to skim through to try and look
at all the information. Yet this is happening. I think
there's what eleven hundred entities that submit audits to the
Local Government Commission the LGC every year. That's a taxpayer
time and money that is being used to sift through
those reports. I mean, you talk about efficiency, this sounds
like it could be a massive project for this date.
Speaker 5: Oh, absolutely absolutely, you're right. In a teracher Brianer said yesterday,
we have eleven hundred towns, counties, municipalities and we could
do an even better job making sure they're not in
financial trouble by using this open AI agreement. And of course,
like you said, the price is right, they're doing it
for free. Open AI is given this a shot for
the twelve weeks to see how this is going to
go for them, so it's not no cost taxpayers or
no cost to the state. But you're right, there's like
case in point, you know, story about audits. You see
audits all the time, especially now Dave Bollock took over
the office. There's quite a few pages you've got to
sift through and get all the information. So stuff like
of that nature. Anything has got all this information that
they could just go ahead and help this be the
process along. It's going to be very helpful, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Teresa. The whole AI discussion is a rather interesting
one we've seen, and you know, there's actual artificial intelligence
and then there's more algorithm you know, compute, machine learning
kind of things that take place. AI unfortunately is more
of a buzzword now than anything else. But when you
look at specifically this partnership and really the rise and
the use of new technology within government, do you see
that as overall a positive or negative thing going forward?
Speaker 5: You know, that's a good question. It could definitely, well,
it's just mentioning what we just talked about, you know,
the efficiency for it going through all this to maybe
be things be the process up. That's definitely a good thing.
But you might see some bad things on the way.
One thing yesterday that Treasurer Brianer said right now, it's
not the loss of any expertise or anybody's jobs in
the short term or as they go along. Didn't say
that on the long term that there wouldn't be job cuts.
Now I'm not saying that there are, but he said
right now short term now we're not. You know, there's
no cutting of jobs. But you wonder how AI is
going to possibly take over some roles and different different
you know, Medium's state government also talking about that as well.
So that might be a bad point if you want
to say it, but I think overall it should be
a good new facet to the world of state government
and for other entities.
Speaker 2: You know, I've heard some of those similar concerns about
the potential long term impacts, specifically looking at individuals that
no longer are needed in those positions, if some of
that's to be done by computers, and specifically what we're
talking about with open AI going forward. And while obviously
Teresa there is a concern of that, I don't know
that I see that big of a difference between what
we could be seeing in the future with the use
of AI, and then the invention of the computer and
the innervation of that into business where you used to have,
you know, in the whole departments of typists with typewriters
that would repeat the same memo over and over and
over again. If you had a meeting and you needed
thirty five copies of something, you had to have those
manually typed up by somebody. Computers come along, printers come along,
and now you just click print thirty copies and it's done.
I mean, the workforce changed then, and I presume it
will change going into the future.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, you're right, You're right. And I want to
backtrack to something you said earlier before you were talking
with me. I know for a fact I'm originally from
Pennsylvania and they are their Department of Unemployment. Only fifteen
years ago, I think it has been updated. They were
using DOSS programs for their unemployment database. How I know
this I know someone very close who worked there. So yeah,
so when you come down with Doss, highe writers, whatever,
you know, we have integrated into what We've got a
computer on our cell phone right before you had the
flip phone. As with anything, I think a lot of
people are hesitant to change. You're hesitant to expand you know,
on other things that are going on, thinking you have
to work out all the different bugs and things that
might you know, might trip some people up or might
be a hindrance, but overall it probably is going to
be a good thing. You just have to get used
to it, make sure it's going to run correctly. Obviously,
I think they're doing this. They're taking the precautions at
the Treasurer's Office to make sure everything is running correctly.
But you're right, you know, we have modernized so much
and it's only only been for the best really when
you think about it as far as efficiency and looking
over all these systems, well, and.
Speaker 2: I think as we go into the future, and obviously this,
as you mentioned, this is a twelve week pilot program,
which I'll note, as you did, is at no cost
to the North Carolina taxpayer. A smart move there by
open AI if they really want to kind of dig
their claws into this and potentially get this long term,
potential more long term contract with the State Treasurer's Office.
To me, Teresa, this frees up resources that allows this
office or any other office in the state, if they
are to adopt similar technologies or similar platforms to allow
them to then start working on other projects and begin
digging into other things that may have seemed impossible in
the past due to a lack of manpower.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, absolutely, if it frees up the time. And
one thing that treasurer said yesterday, he knows for a
fact other offices, the state agencies in North Carolina are
looking into open AI using it as well. They're kind
of like, you know, leading the way at this point.
But it would get you use the buzzword efficiency, but
it will make things more efficient and hopefully, you know,
that's all going to be for the best for the
taxpayer and for like local governments, whatever agencies that are
working on different different issues. It is a good thing.
Speaker 2: So you're right, Teresa, you've got some more details in
your story this morning. I know you're you and the
folks over at Carolina Journal are tracking some additional news.
A busy week coming up in the legislature next week.
Where can folks read that story and keep up to
date with North Carolina news.
Speaker 5: Sure they can head on over to Carolina Journal dot
com and also check us out on x Also, we've
got our weekly show, The Debrief on YouTube. So we're
lots of places, but the main place to check out
the story is Carolina Journal dot com.
Speaker 2: Teresa, thanks so much for the update this afternoon. Greatly appreciated,
Teresa Opeka, Carolina Journal dot com. A very interesting story
out of North Carolina. The Treasurer's office doing a twelve
week pilot program with Open Ai'll be very curious to
see what the post mortem on all of that looks like.
Keep obviously updates over at Carolina Journal dot com.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm Nick Craig, host of the Carolina Journal News Hour,
also host of The Nick Craig Show, which you can
find in your favorite podcast app. Sitting in for Pete
this afternoon as we continued the discussional. The whole show's
been focused on government efficiency, talking about new technology, a
lot of things going on right now in government, and
I want to heart back on the conversation we were
just having with Teresa Opeka from Carolina Journal dot com
This announcement from the North Carolina State Treasurer's Office Brad Briner,
that they're entering into a twelve week agreement with open
AI to increase some of the efficiencies within the Treasurer's office.
I think this is phenomenal. Now, this is not to
mean that there are no concerns, questions, and legitimate concerns
and questions with artificial intelligence, which unfortunately is a buzzword
right You see now if you watch television, every single
company is seemingly throwing AI into something or another. It's
a phenomenal buzzword for marketing right now. Some of it
is actually artificial intelligence, other is just computer algorithms, which
by definition are not AI. So there are still serious
concerns about AI. And rightfully so, it's a relatively new
technology and it's kind of unknown exactly where it's going
to live us. Do we get to incredible levels of
efficiency or do we end up in a Terminator movie
with a sky that system trying to take everything over.
But really, one of the things that you hear is
that while people are going to lose their jobs, people
are going to lose their jobs because of AI. And
while that is likely to be the case. While that
is probably true, this is no different than any other
technological advance or modernization that has taken place throughout the
entirety of human history. And the greatest example of this
happened not that long ago. I mean, you look at
the invention of the personal computer IBM, Big Blue bringing
computers in mainframes into offices back in the sixties and seventies.
You talk about increasing efficiency within business, within government, it
started with IBM. It started with these huge mainframe computers
that costed millions of dollars that were installed that allowed
spreadsheets and finances to be tracked electronically. It was a
huge innovation and with that people did, in fact lose
their jobs. The job descriptions shifted and changed as computers
got smaller and cheaper and better than they started landing
on people's desks. Now across every single office in the
entire country there is a computer or a hookup for
a laptop sitting on desks. They're all over the place,
and just sitting here, I mean, there's dozens of computers around.
So the question is, and I know the concern is real,
and I appreciate it. The question is how do you
get ahead of that right in the free market? How
do you set yourself apart from everybody else with the
use of this technology. The systems can't run by themselves.
People are going to have to know how to use them.
Individuals that are going to decide to adopt this technology
are going to decide that, hey, this is something that
I need to take serious. This is something that I
need to use, and I need to learn how to
master this craft of artificial intelligence. I need to craft
the use of open AI and really hone in on this.
Those will be the people that stand out right. This
is no different than any other technological advance that we've
seen in human history. Now it's happening at probably a
quicker rate than some other sort of innovations and inventions
of the past. Sure, but the root idea of innovation,
the idea of things becoming cheaper and easier to do,
that's not new. That's not inherently unique in any meaningful way.
It's happened all throughout human history. Business and government has
always adapted to new technology. It's been happening see literally
forever I mean like and when I say I mean
literally for and so I think this is a good
idea coming out of the State Treasurer's office. The fact
that it doesn't cost North Carolina taxpayers a cent. I mean,
sign me up for that smart moved by open ai
to give this service for free with the hopes of
eventually getting probably a very lucrative government contract. Let's be
honest about it. They've got their incentive as well. But
to me, this is a great idea And props to
Brad Briner in the State Treasurer's office for moving forward
on this, for bringing this technology forward and saying, hey,
this is happening. The world is still revolving around us.
We have two options. We can either sit static, sit dormant,
and allow the world to change, or we can get
on the bandwagon. We can try this out, do a
twelve week pilot program and see what the end result is.
And if I've learned anything about Brad Briner over the
last couple of months, the three months that he's been
in office, he's done a really good job at bringing
information to the people of North Carolina, providing public and
transparent information. So I'm pretty confident that we will learn
in just a couple of months how this program worked.
It's a very very interesting stuff. You can again read
the details this afternoon over at Carolina Journal dot com.
Speaker 1: All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you
so much for listening. I could not do the show
without your support and the support of the businesses that
advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support
them too and tell them you heard it here. You
can also become a patron at my Patreon page or
go to thepetecalarshow dot com. Again, thank you so much
for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.