Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

The Last Show with David Cooper

FULL EPISODE: Robotic Rabbits - January 7, 2026

09 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 2.275 Unknown

Unfiltered discussions.

0

Chapter 2: How are robotic rabbits being used to combat invasive pythons in Florida?

3.437 - 32.873 Unknown

Unexpected guests. No topic is off limits. From sex and relationships to the human condition. Personal anxieties and so much more. The only talk show of its kind in the world. World This Is. Hi and welcome. Pull up a chair and put on your thinking cap. Here's what you'll learn on The Last Show University tonight. Except you won't get a degree.

0

33.072 - 61.028 Unknown

Okay, so police are starting to use AI to write their police reports. And one of them ended up saying that an officer in an incident turned into a frog. Seriously. So what went wrong with this auto-generated report based on body cam footage? And why a frog? We'll tell you that in about 10 minutes time. Then after that... How does a healthy giraffe tragically die inside a world-class zoo?

0

61.429 - 67.78 Unknown

A 13-year-old giraffe was crushed by a gate at the Toronto Zoo, and people are asking, how could this happen?

0

Chapter 3: What are the implications of OpenAI's ChatGPT Health for personal medical data?

68.181 - 90.658 Unknown

Halfway through the hour, we'll unpack the incident and cover what captivity really means for exotic animals. All right, that's some of what we'll cover tonight. There will be more. You will learn more. But for now, let's dive in with stories from the tech industry today. part of the last show with David Cooper? Call us and join the conversation. 1-888-505-6644.

0

92.18 - 107.669 Unknown

We are here to cover the tech stories of the day with tech analyst, Carmi Levy. And the most important top story that you need to know about involves robotic bunnies to fight invasive Burmese pythons. Carmi, welcome to the show. You know, start with bunnies.

0

107.709 - 108.692 Carmi Levy

That's always the best.

0

109.234 - 120.707 Unknown

And then add the word robotic and then you're even doing better. And then add the word pythons and it's the best story of the year. Oh, and then even more, add the word Florida and maybe the best story of the century.

0

121.818 - 128.269 Carmi Levy

You know, it's funny. I've been to Florida. I've walked around, you know, in and around the Everglades.

Chapter 4: Why did a police report claim an officer transformed into a frog?

128.289 - 147.045 Carmi Levy

I've been in kind of rural Florida where you probably should be close to a vehicle or carry a gun because Lord knows the wildlife there can kill you. And the people, but keep going. Yeah. And so I did not know this. I did not know that the Burmese python is not native to Florida. It is an invasive species.

0

147.225 - 157.647 Carmi Levy

And over the past number of years, it has decimated in some areas small mammals and birds in some places up to 95 percent of the small mammal population.

0

157.93 - 164.639 Unknown

These are not small snakes. They can grow up like over 15 feet. These are serious beasts.

0

Chapter 5: What happened to the giraffe at the Toronto Zoo?

164.699 - 166.802 Unknown

These are basically biblical level serpents.

0

166.822 - 186.349 Carmi Levy

They are. And, you know, they'll squeeze you to death and you're done. And what's scary about them is they're incredibly good at camouflage. And to the point that an estimated only one to three percent of all the Burmese pythons that are out in the wild have ever been located because they're just so good at hiding themselves.

0

186.95 - 200.44 Carmi Levy

When conservationists try to control the exploding population, they can't because they can't catch them. Normally, you'd use decoys or you'd use humans to go out into the wild and look for them. That hasn't worked because of this camouflage.

0

200.46 - 212.601 Carmi Levy

And so they've created this robotic bunny, a cyber bunny, that uses some pretty intense technology to fake out the pythons and get them to think that this is an actual bunny.

0

Chapter 6: Are exotic animal cafes a cute trend or a welfare crisis?

212.621 - 228.726 Carmi Levy

And then they use that as a lure. And then once they identify them, they can then go catch them. And so these bunnies have, they cost about $4,000 a piece. They have about 120 of them deployed so far. And they have internal heaters, so they're kind of just warm enough to, as a regular rabbit.

0

228.806 - 232.932 Unknown

Because don't snakes like sense infrared and heat and that kind of thing of their prey?

0

233.132 - 243.766 Carmi Levy

They do. They're incredibly sensitive, right? And so they can sense things like temperature and movement and smell. And if something isn't quite right, they won't take the bait.

0

Chapter 7: What did Ashley Tisdale say about her toxic mom group?

243.786 - 264.809 Carmi Levy

And so they've used those sort of those three things. So internal heaters to sort of mimic the heat signature of an actual rabbit, solar-powered motors to replicate. We know when rabbits twitch. So they'll twitch using these motors, again, to fool the snake. And then aroma diffusers that release synthetic scents that smell a lot like rabbits.

0

264.869 - 281.51 Carmi Levy

I don't know what rabbit smell is, but clearly these researchers do. And so they put them out in the wild and then they put cameras around them and they're network connected cameras. And then they trap them. And then when they trap one, they, you know, humans go collect them and then release them humanely somewhere else.

0

281.59 - 294.267 Carmi Levy

And so, you know, this is a technological answer to a biological environmental problem that will hopefully level the playing field and ensure that native species can thrive because right now they're not.

0

Chapter 8: Should we allow AI to resurrect loved ones after they pass away?

294.547 - 296.95 Carmi Levy

This thing is killing everything and it needs to be removed.

0

296.93 - 303.221 Unknown

So the rabbits attract the snakes. Then what happens? Like the local wildlife authorities grab them in a bag kind of thing?

0

303.421 - 328.724 Carmi Levy

Yeah, they watch them online because it's basically like a live stream and they watch them. And when the snake comes along and tries to attack the robotic rabbit, that's the trigger for the human conservation officers to move in. And capture them and then move them. They say it's unhumanely. I wouldn't be so humane if I were faced with a 15-foot snake, but hey, maybe that's just me.

0

328.744 - 332.329 Unknown

I, for one, welcome our robotic rabbit overlords.

0

332.349 - 339.12 Carmi Levy

Yeah, I prefer robotic overlords, robotic rabbit overlords to snake overlords. So, you know, let's go with the technology. Go technology.

339.1 - 356.693 Unknown

I just feel like there's a timeline out there. If you believe in the multiverse and many universes and every decision gets branched using quantum mechanics, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There is a world where these AI robots trying to catch snakes actually take over the world. And that timeline is about as stupid as the one we're living in now. wouldn't bet against it.

357.214 - 361.277 Unknown

Now, to be clear, these rabbits are not AI yet, but who knows what the future holds.

361.477 - 370.405 Carmi Levy

They could be, exactly. Maybe version two, we'll have AI built into it. And I think that's when we should start getting worried. But for now, go robots, bad snakes, let's keep it going.

370.425 - 385.459 Unknown

I'm of mixed mind for our next story because I do think the future of your personal health, like your doctor visit and medicine is going to involve AI to diagnose you, to like look at your medical data and make decisions very quickly about what you might have, how to be more healthy, that kind of thing.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.